The most ER picture of all time

Every year about this time, I pull out this legendary picture for my screenshot at work, to share with everyone.  No, I didn’t take this photo, but I wish I had and have nothing but adoring applause for the genius that caught this shot (my gut tells me this was in New Orleans, but can’t prove it).  For me, this tableau of the human condition encapsulates the absurdity into which we must descend.  Like a classic Renaissance painting with so much movement, side plots, and subtext, historical and cultural metaphor, and contrasting emotions, we see the past, present, and future at once, molded into a complete narrative.

One Easter bunny comforting another.  The blurred face of a bystander clearly representing us all, filming, pointing, and laughing.  Of COURSE, Oompa Loompa’s show up!  The world-weary EMS crewman knowing he is seeing this all yet again, his Sisyphean labor, even as the central figure doesn’t spill a drop.

The is the most ER picture of all time.