Computer science skills are becoming more and more a vital part of life. To prove this point to my friend, I began to pretend to be a manager, interviewing potential employees who either did, or didn't know a computer language. My friend and I were on our way to a restaurant at the time, just along the side of the street. "Oh hi, Stephen Hawking! What's that, you don't know C++? Oh, I'm sorry, I can't hire you then for this position." Is what I meant to say. However, just as I began to speak, a handicapped person in a wheelchair rolled out of a shop ahead of me. Imagine, then, my horror as I finished the sentence "Oh hi, Stephen Hawking!"
That moment seemed to freeze in time, magnified in duration by the amazed and horrified expressions of the strangers around me who saw the handicapped man. My heart fell into my stomach, burning in the gastric juices. Mein Gott! What have I done?
Time resumed all too quickly, and I pulled a hood over my face to conceal my identity. I resumed speaking, trying to complete the rest of the sentence so that it seemed I hadn't even noticed the man. But it was too late. I felt the angry burning glares of the people around me, so I rushed ahead and crossed the street, hoping to escape into the busy crowd ahead, thereby shrugging off my embarrassment.
Whoever is reading this, make note of the moral of the story: sometimes, time and space conspire against you, and you can do nothing about it.
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