A Bag of Laughs

Well, the latest One Second installation happened last night, and I must say it went absolutely nothing like I had imagined!

The aim of the installation - like always - was to provoke One Second of new thought in people that will spring to the front of their minds when it comes time for them to make their One Second count. The method this time involved a steel hospital table and a body bag, and asking people whether they trusted their friends enough to let them zip them up in the body bag - for just One Second.

We arrived at a popular Surf Club shortly after 6pm and decided to bring the table through the back entrance so as not to scare children out with their families. People looked on with interest as we set up the table and the body bag in the bar area.
By 7pm the club slowly started to fill with people, and an invisible barrier began to form around the table. People were hesitant to go near the body bag. Most were intrigued, but kept their interest for quick glances from a safe distance away.

As 8pm came around - with a few drinks under their belts - people started coming forward and allowing their friends to zip them up in a body bag. There was a lot of nervous laughter and most people made their friends promise, over and over again, that they would unzip them. People were nervous and many spent more than just One Second deciding whether or not they would get in the bag.

By 9pm, an abundance of liquid courage saw a constant stream of people being zipped and unzipped in the body bag. There was much laughing and joking and many profanities were exclaimed as people experienced laying on a hard steel table and having a body bag zipped closed around them.
As the evening progressed, the experience appeared to become more novel than thought provoking. People started requesting to be zipped up together, some pretended to fall asleep inside the bag, others wanted to know if they could borrow it to play a prank on someone, and I started to doubt the effectiveness of the installation.

Then a little before 10pm, someone went too far - They zipped up their friend and would not let them out.
At first, the persons muffled protests and awkward movements from inside the bag made people laugh. This laughter, mixed with a large amount of alcohol, spurred on the person responsible for keeping his friend in the body bag, and he continued to hold the zip closed.

Then his friend started to panic.

People stopped laughing and began telling the man to let his friend out, but the man seemed oblivious to the turn his prank was taking.

With all eyes on the body bag, the man finally released his friend, who emerged pale and shaky.
Breathing heavily, the friend's terror was replaced by rage and he unleashed a scathing attack on his 'friend', which ended with, "You can't screw with people's lives like that - It's not f***ing funny!"

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Nobody wanted to get in the body bag after that. Suddenly, putting themselves in the hands of their friends - after their friends had had more than a few drinks - didn't seem so funny.

They didn't trust their friends with something as simple as unzipping a bag, and I can only hope they valued their lives as much when it came time to getting home.

One Second for Friends

What would you do if your friend was lying on a cold steel table, in a body bag?

Would you watch as the bag was zipped closed?

Or would you take One Second to unzip them?

When it counts, will you take One Second to choose life for you and your friend?

***

Every time you get behind the wheel, you take people's lives in your hands.

Every time you turn the wheel to steer around a corner - you choose life.
Every time you break - for a red light, to adhere the speed limit, to safely take the bend - you choose life.
For every second you have your eyes on the road - you are choosing life.

Alcohol
Drugs
Speeding
Driving distracted

These things impede your ability to turn the wheel, to take the bend, to see the red light, to drive safely -

To choose life.

***

When it's your friend on the table,

Will you be sober enough to unzip the body bag?

---

One Second for Parents

Can you answer these questions about your child?

What is their favourite:

Colour:

Story:

Song:

Teddy or soft toy:

Item of clothing:

Don't read on until you have all 5...

Got them?
OK.

***

Congratulations - You have all the answers to planning your child's funeral.

It will take you an hour to decide on flowers in your child's favourite colour, and a day and a half to find a florist who can provide them for the service.

Their favourite story - the one you read to your child every night - you will read it to them, for the last time, at their funeral.
It will take you twice as long to get though, because the words will stick in your throat as you fight back the tears.

The song, which goes for 3 and a half minutes, will be played as your child's coffin is lowered into the ground.
You will never again be able to listen to that song all the way through without crying.
Your tears will run longer than 3 and a half minutes.

You will place the teddy that has slept next to your child every night for most of their lives beside them in their coffin.
With their eyes closed peacefully, their head resting on a pillow and their teddy right beside them, they look as though they could just be sleeping.
But they are never going to wake up.

The clothes your child will be buried in are familiar, yet they look somehow strange without life to fill them.
I wonder - did you dress your child for the last time, or was it too much for you to bare?

***

Which clothes.
Which teddy.
Which song.
Which story.
Which colour.

Are these the choices you want to make for your child?

Or would you rather take one second to think?
One second to drive safely?

One second for life.