Are We Already In The Matrix?

I enjoyed walking the streets of downtown Toronto, weaving my way through glass buildings in the high-rise city-scape. I loved the mirrored effect and took lots of pictures of windowed walls reflecting cloudy skies and surrounding structures that distorted the world into ripples. It was as if I were given Neo’s eyes, peering into The Matrix, suddenly privy to the world created for us and designed to keep us in step. And so many seemed to be in step on the sidewalks, merging into the flow of people on a path with purpose. I laughed at the thought that I had no way of telling agents from actors.

I was in the middle of these matrix musings when a man stopped next to me, wearing sunglasses and a dark suit, and stared up at the same mirrored surface that I was framing with my camera lens. It was only an instant, but the timing with my thoughts was uncanny. I turned to look at him. He gave me a rapid nod and I felt this eerie sense of being marked, tagged for surveillance by the big brother machine. He turned away before I could respond, falling into step with the pedestrian flow, and quickly disappearing around the corner.

It occurred to me to follow him, but my urge came too late. By the time I made the bend, he was gone. I felt myself in a twilight zone, the hairs lifted up on my neck, my mind bending around the possibility that the whole world, and this life I take for granted, may be no more than an illusion.