People Are Lemmin's

I went to a wedding this past weekend. It was a beautiful time, held in a sunken garden surrounded by trees. A "five-piece quartet" was playing, the birds were chirping, and the sun was shining (a bit too warmly). And one of the attendees was a kid, maybe two or three.

This kid was smart, this kid was able to single-handedly prove to me that people are a bunch of followers. Ok, maybe not single-handedly. He did use both his hands. For as the instruments stilled to change to the wedding march, the kid began to clap.

He /knew/ that when the music stops, you're supposed to clap. He /knew/ that it's the Right Thing to do, and so he did. And was surely incredibly confused when his mother spent the rest of the ceremony trying to shush him any time clapping might be likely.

He was entirely excusable, though. You /are/ supposed to clap when the band stops playing.

But everyone else, the entire rest of the attendees heard clapping. And /they/ know that if someone else is clapping, well, you're obviously supposed to clap too. So right then, before the beautiful bride began to walk down the aisle, the entire group broke out their hands and began to clap.

I can't help but wonder if she thought we were just glad to finally be rid of her. And then I saw the smile on her face, and knew that she wasn't thinking about anything but him.