It's been there for hours. People started crossing the street to avoid it. Whispers directing traffic.
No police were called in to investigate, just self imposed butterfly caution, zip-zagging around an unknown unknown.
When a man came with money for the meter, folks at the bus stop laughed. Feeling stupid is funny. Irrational fear and moving in herds opens a million year old window into us.
Sometimes the van is white, sometimes brown or beige; but to our mammalian eyes the unknown is always colored bad.
So we avoid and whisper, til some happenstance reveals the situation then we laugh, but we don't learn. The next van gets quarantined as well.
Only the drivers recognize this pattern, some exploit it, some try to teach. Historically, teachers are eaten by the ignorant because they get too close. By those standards the exploiters seem wise.
Let's not be afraid of the van.
photo: taken w/ iPhone 3Gs, Hipstamatic app (Melodie, Ina's1935)
