Probability

I was hurrying to my next meeting a few buildings away from our office with just five minutes to spare. I had been there before, and it only took me two, so I knew I had enough time to get there, and set up the projector. I was lost in thought when a guy grabbed me by the arm, and said, “Oy!” The face looked familiar, but I could not place it anywhere. I was beginning to get worried because one, I barely had enough time to get to the next meeting, and two, with the way he smiled, we must have been pretty close before, and it would be utterly embarrassing if I had not been not able to remember his name. I was about to shift to a customary, “Oy! Kmusta!” and pretend like I knew him and his favourite pet. Then, I remembered.

This was Steven, which we all called Bentot, then. I could only imagine my eyes widen like the Pacific Ocean! I had never thought to meet him here. He said we worked in same City and along the same avenue. He worked for a shipping company, to which I smiled. Years ago, we would have thought he’d spend the rest of his life drowning himself in alcohol or sleeping in his urine. The guy started drinking early, with the company of people he met from God-knows-where.

But we are all both a wave and a particle, and where we are and how fast we are going could never be ascertained. Heisenberg was wise enough to know this, saying that knowing a particle’s velocity and position means nothing for it can never be known. We can approach this knowledge, but never quite get there. We could, however, settle for probabilities, and accept the uncertainty of everything.

But that’s fine for this could also be proof of our freedom. From a mechanistic universe, from society, from our predispositions, and possibly, fries, too. So, that when I met Bentot again after many years, it was just a little surprising (though, I might be lying a bit here) that he achieved what many of us had thought he wouldn’t.

We would still be talking on that busy walkway if a man had not bumped into me. I glanced at my watch and saw that we had been at it for a good 3 minutes. I could still make it. I had to go, I said, and he, too.

I wasn’t late for the meeting, but on the way there, I could not stop thinking about Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle and quitting smoking.