Falling over
October 6th 2006 06:55
Observe the course of consciousness:
-- You’re going down twelve flights of steep stairs.
-- At first, you’re very conscious of foot and eye coordination. You don’t want to fall over.
-- But then, your mind begins to lose focus, till you’re doing it automatically. You’re no longer conscious of every step. You think of other things. Like counting the floors as you pass them, perhaps.
-- In the process of becoming automatic, in the process of your feet’s learning the movements, they get faster.
-- And then you become conscious of losing focus on the stairs, and this alarms you, especially given the speed.
-- And you become conscious of aspects of movement that you weren’t aware of before, like the height at which your feet rise to take a step, and the muscles involved in moving. You’re conscious of how many things could go wrong, the potential for disaster.
-- Walking suddenly becomes defamiliarised, at precisely the point at which you need it to be natural, instinctive.
-- So you either fall, or you slow your pace or stop, or you try to slip back into autopilot mode, trusting your feet.
-- You’re going down twelve flights of steep stairs.
-- At first, you’re very conscious of foot and eye coordination. You don’t want to fall over.
-- But then, your mind begins to lose focus, till you’re doing it automatically. You’re no longer conscious of every step. You think of other things. Like counting the floors as you pass them, perhaps.
-- In the process of becoming automatic, in the process of your feet’s learning the movements, they get faster.
-- And then you become conscious of losing focus on the stairs, and this alarms you, especially given the speed.
-- And you become conscious of aspects of movement that you weren’t aware of before, like the height at which your feet rise to take a step, and the muscles involved in moving. You’re conscious of how many things could go wrong, the potential for disaster.
-- Walking suddenly becomes defamiliarised, at precisely the point at which you need it to be natural, instinctive.
-- So you either fall, or you slow your pace or stop, or you try to slip back into autopilot mode, trusting your feet.
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