Relative Something

Something that I have always wanted to be able to do is move in slow motion, in real time. As a kid, when we tried to reenact outstanding achievements that we’d seen our athlete-heroes perform in slow motion replays on television, the best moves always reached a point where gravity would overcome our ultimate maneuver and wreck the timing with a fast fall.

It occurred to me, when watching Olympic figure skating the last couple of weeks, that we can’t even judge what the athletes are doing anymore without using slow motion video. They spin so fast that judges need to review a slowed replay to discern the actual positioning of the skater’s blades. I don’t think a play goes by, in sports I watch on television, that I don’t wish to view each previous move from the perspective of the slow motion replay. Even video games provide slow motion replay of what just occurred prior.

I say, let’s just take it to the obvious extreme that we seem to be inevitably headed toward anyway and devise a way to slow everything down (anti-gravity?) in real time. But it has to be EVERYTHING, or it won’t work properly. If you are in slow mode and something looks amiss, you can’t just speed your reaction to avert calamity. You must suffer seeing it all play out as you remain synchronized with the slow speed and unable to alternatively influence the outcome. Ya gotta take the good with the bad.

Why, in slow motion, real time, I could have made that move to get open and release that quick shot to win the men’s hockey gold medal game.