In one of her Brunetti books, Death in a Strange Country, Donna Leon has
her hero, Commissario Brunetti, think of the answer in a ‘hallucinogenic
instant’. It is the “aha” moment, as Webster’s
defines it: a moment of sudden realization,
inspiration, insight, recognition, or comprehension. It can also be the
instant, usually traumatic, when your life flashes before your eyes.
On a regular basis, nine times out of ten, we
just think of what has to be done and we do it. The hallucinogenic instant
comes at that tenth time, the time when we are desperate. When we’ve got to
solve the problem, do or die.
It also comes when, as noted, our life
flashes before our eyes. This has
happened to me. Once, on an excruciating January day after a night of constant
snow followed by freezing rain, I was dumb enough to try to get to work on the
Long Island Expressway. Wrong decision! It wasn’t essential that I get there.
Cresting a hill, the wind took my car and sent it sailing into another car that
had had the same experience. Crash! But between the time the wind took the car
and the time I crashed, time itself slowed down for me. I even had time to
think about what I was thinking. I never thought I was going to die, but I did
get a quick review of things past. Eerie, to say the least. I was right near
the exit I would have taken, so I left the car and trudged through the ice and
knee-deep snow to get to work and start the recovery process. As I walked, I
thought more about the experience. It was nasty to be in the accident, but in a
way I was delighted to then be among those whose life had flashed before their
eyes and lived to tell the tale.
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