Gruesome sight.

I make a game of telling you, rare reader, how many accident scenes I pass during the course of my days here in Wuxi, China. I was able to make a game of it because all I have seen is wrecked vehicles and no actual carnage.

No actual carnage, that is, until today. Coming back from Timken on the freeway, I saw a van stopped on the left side of the road and a flatbed truck stopped on the right. From a distance, I could make out figures lying beneath the back of the flatbed. As the taxi I was in passed the scene, I saw that two motorcyclists had been hit and taken under the flatbed. The expressions on their faces were stunned but otherwise expressionless. A stream of blood trickled down one of the rider's forehead. The accident must have happened but a minute before.

The sight shocked me. Combined with seeing the man put on a stretcher last night, this game of mine has taken on a more gruesome turn. I suppose one day, I will see someone get killed on the roads of Wuxi.

Before the accident, I would have first mentioned what happened at Timken. I learned that Timken, like Seagate, will be shut down from Christmas to the New Year because of a slowdown in business. I was at Timken to judge a speaking contest, the topic Christmas. I made a speech about Christmas which has given me the kernel of an idea for an essay I will eventually publish in this blog about what Christmas means and has meant to me. I conceived the outline of the speech as I spoke, without plan, to the Timken students.