Fire Drills and Yankee Doodle

Nothing particularly coherent about my day today, and in that spirit, here are a few random thoughts. We have become completely desensitized to fire alarms - it's "the boy who cried wolf" times a thousand. When was the last time you heard a fire alarm go off and thought to yourself "gee golly, it's really great that we have electronic devices that sense smoke and emit an amplified noise to warn us all of the potential danger we may be facing!" Yeah, that's what I thought. We're a lot more likely to groan, finish that email, leisurely put on our coat, and walk slowly down the stairs, maybe stopping at the bathroom on the way out. Two fire alarms in the last two days and zero corresponding fires suggest to me that this attitude ain't going to change any time soon.

No possible segue, so I won't even try. In the London underground system, there are semi-circular areas sprinkled around the stations that provide a site for sanctioned street performers to perform. Everyone always walks on by, acting as if they didn't exist, giving a slight half smile of appreciation in the best case scenario. But kids are a different story. They don't know that you're supposed to ignore these people. The last couple of days, I've seen a few kids stop walking, let go of their parent's hand, and start dancing to the music. It's a reassuring picture of innocence; I think we're subconsciously trained to view street performers with suspicion or at least wariness. Or maybe not so subconsciously - when one child tired of dancing and walked off to join his father, the performer stopped playing, scowling at his audience, upset that he didn't capitalize financially on the child's momentary joy. I guess it goes both ways.