Tuesday 28 August 2012

Once Upon a Time... Nothing Happened ! 

It was a day like any other. In fact it was a day so extremely like any other that it became weird. Afterward, everyone agreed it had been the most unlikely day in the history of humankind.

It was the day nothing extraordinary happened. The ongoing wars didn't have any significant battles. It was a day without terrorstrikes or murders. No floods or earthquakes occured. Nobody famous died or gave birth or even announced a pregnancy. There were no royal weddings, new Hollywood romances or break-ups. No elections were won or even held. A day without demonstrations, strikes or riots. It was a boring day for Wall Street and consorts. NASA didn't launch anything, no scientific breakthroughs were made and no new iGadgets were released.

No popstars were caught on camera showing their genitalia in public, no famous band released a new album and no long awaited movie had it's theatrical release.

No spokesman of any religion said something stupid to upset the rest. Nobody claimed to have seen a UFO, Bigfoot or the appearance of the Holy Virgin in dirty underpants.

It was a day without news.

People didn't notice at first, because all the news in the newspapers had happened the day before. It became clear when the new day was a few hours old. No websites found anything new to publish. There was only old news to gather. After the fuzz about yesterday's news had passed, Twitter became awkwardly silent. Only insignificant personal stories were shared by users of social media.
Press Agencies awaited incoming copy from journalists around the world, but they really had nothing to report about.

And then it started... people were wondering what was happening. Was it a glitch in the Matrix? Was God on a break? Was it the silence before the storm? Before the Apocalypse?

Some even tried to have their fifteen minutes of fame, but none succeeded, because for some reason their actions were only discovered a day later . Nobody was interested in these attention seekers anyway, because... well... this was the day nothing happened!

When the evening news came on, it was the most watched show in the history of television, although it had only one item. Why did nothing happen today?

When the first timezone was reaching midnight, people sat together, holding hands in fear of what might come. But nothing happened, as it had been the habit all day. The day just gave way to a new one that really was just like any other day, in the sense that it was UNlike any other day, for all the things that happened.

"The Day Without News" became the most talked about event in history. It gave birth to books, movies and cults.

For some though, something DID happen that day. Because in a day without news, they started noticing what was going on in their own lives.

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