Accidents occur when there is a combination of unsafe conditions aided and abetted by unsafe acts. However, Mystery Trips don't require any such pre-conditions or acts to send one hurtling along these fast track lanes into territory hitherto unexplored. Mystery trips can take place at anytime and just about anywhere irrespective of the person's rating vis-a-vis his general safety awareness and/or accident proneness.
What Are Mystery Trips ?
If I have confused you with mystery journeys and accidents let me come straight to the point. Simply said, mystery trips are sudden and violent falls caused by the act of tripping forward with extreme force. The involuntary yanking forward is so devilishly devastating that it reminds one of those Exorcist scenes. Nothing save a miracle can stop you from falling and breaking your bones, unless you have great reflexes, presence of mind and familiarity with breaking a fall, Judo style. You may be a person with "Zero Accident Propensity", aka "100 % Accident Free Human Machine" but still you will have one of those violent tripping incidents even if the road surface is even and absolutely safe like a Mother's lap. And mind you, these involuntary tripping incidents cause the worst type of injuries, leading to paralysis and even death.
The Mystery And Cause/Effect
What actually lies behind these mystery incidents of tripping? Black Magic? Satanic Rituals? Absent-mindedness? or plain carelessness? As a person who has survived almost 24 such mystery trippings, all after the age of 45, I can share with you my personal reading into the inside mechanism of the trip'n'fall act. Fortunately, yours truly has been able to regain balance even after three to four hop-step-and-hop-again acts in jerky motion forward, by sheer presence of mind. Even with two heavy grocery bags in both hands I have managed to pull off the unbelievable, escaping with a torn shoe-strap and some laughs from curious onlookers viewing this Exorcist action replay! In almost all the cases the road conditions and/or the happening surface was perfectly even and safe beyond an iota of doubt. So what lies behind the trip that hurtles your best face- fast-forward, landing you on your whatever?
Le Analysis de Caus
Think No Evil! I am adding this to the other three Gems coined by Mahatma Gandhi, viz: 1. See No Evil; 2. Hear No Evil; and 3. Speak No Evil. So add, No Monkey Thinkie to No Monkey Seeyie, No Monkey Hearie,and No Monkey Speakie. I have observed during post-mortem analysis of these tripping incidents that my mind was actually thinking of some evil thoughts while at the same time absent-mindedly detaching myself from the actual Act of Walking. The thinking evil part needn't have to be about murdering someone but the sheer act of the evil thought involuntarily throws you off balance and off you go, hurtling forward to nowhere. Even after analysing this post-trip truth I have had several fresh and free roller-coaster rides, tripping forward like some Tom and Jerry cartoon. So what exactly is the extent of evil thinking that is likely to cause an accident? Well, it can be as evil as pinching an office colleague's bottom on the sly, or throwing garbage on the neighbour's porch etc. But mind you, you don't have to do it, only think about it and just see what happens! May be God has thought up a nice way to curb people from thinking evil about others. Yeah, trip 'em up real bad and get 'em bleedin' thoughts out for good! Thats right, only Him can can think of such a dummy act and put into perfect practice, experimenting on us poor menfolk. I bet women, don't go to this extent, or do they? What a fall they'll have with those stilettos on! (Hey, blast it, I just nearly tripped over on to the keyboard.)
The Last Man Standing Fall
It cannot be that the Discoverer of The Trip Mechanism -- Inside Story, will be allowed to go scotfree by Him, that All Powerful God, up there. That it had to happen on the railway track adds a sadistic twist to the tail, I mean Tale. Well, here the surface was certainly uneven, likely to cause accidents. Hmm, when I went tripping off like a shooting star and fell eight to ten feet ahead, on the tracks, sprawling like a coyote just run over, I really wasn't thinking anything evil. I was actually thinking something romantic like planning "a tryst with an old flame", and I didn't trip on the uneven surface, I tripped on an angular mechanical device which operated the level-crossing gates! The eggs and groceries were all scattered and when I painfully got up, retrieving a packet or two, I was looking Down the Bore of The Deadly Forty-Four of Ringo? Not exactly, I was looking at the Headlight beam of an approaching train with the Gate Attendant shooing me off. As I was leaving, bruised and limping, I realised something : a correction -- yes indeed, I was thinking evil and God ticked me off right and good. He, therefore, tripped me so that I didn't meander off the right tracks and broke someone's home.
Conclusion
Now next time you go for a stroll down at the park, remember. no absent-mindedness, and certainly no evil thoughts either. This sure is going to help you extend your injury-free long life into an absolutely accident-free jouirney ahead. For a perfectly safe walk back home, remember no mystery trips. In other words, Think No Evil. No need to think of old flames. You can always think good, of new flames which are better by far (chuckle).
