MORNING COMMUTE
She flew in like superman and landed splat like a bug....
Everyday someone rushes to enter the train while the doors are closing. Today was no different. A young caucasian female in mid to late twenties with with strawberry blonde hair highlighted with bronze and lighter blonde rushed the doors. She flew in the train car with her body turned slightly to the side to accommodate the narrowing doors. She managed to get most of her body in train car but the doors slammed in on her right ankle and she fell splat like a bug under a swatting net. She flip over and using her left leg to push at the door to get her foot out. Passengers standing by the door try to help. Successful she jumped up and answered, "am ok, am ok."
EVENING COMMUTE
He swung like hanging window shutters flapping in a storm.
I boarded the bus on the last leg of my commute home from work. I sat on the side parallel 3 sitter. The bus was full however there was an empty seat next to me. The elderly South Asian man boarded the bus and elected not to sit. He stood to the front of the seat I occupied and held on to the bar with his right hand. The bus took a few turns and he moved back and fough like a willow tree. I looked at him and thought 'why don't you sit-down you can barely hold yourself up.' Just as I finished the thought the bus took a big turn and the man swung sharply to the right into me like hanging shutters in a wind storm. I quickly moved and he landed on half my seat and half on the opposite side. He righted himself apologizing to me. Again he stood and held on rocking as the bus moved. I sighed and said, "please have a seat."
"Oh I don't want to sit," he said and almost fell again. I looked at him and said again "please sit down before you fall and hurt yourself." Finally he sat down. He took my hand and thanked me.
The experience left me with thinking,..
'how many times must a person fall and experience discomfort before they learn from the lessons that the fall and the discomfort is trying to convey? Or as it was in this case will it take another person observing the trauma to say something before the lesson registers?
A most compassionate post. I am 70 and not always steady on my feet: there's a tendency to refuse help, however kindly offered, but when it is needed nothing else will do. You are my hero today.
ReplyDeleteThank you Geo. A superhero? Wow I don't think I have ever been called that. I guess I know how it is. I have grown up with a lot of old people. In fact they were my friends and believe it or not I spent my teenage years splitting my time between them all. I enjoyed their company and they enjoyed me.
DeleteI think if we are lucky, we grow old and still hold on to our ability to help and sustain ourselves and our facilities. Hopefully in the course of living our lives we'll experience empathy for those less youthful and we'll get some of that back.
OMG - both of these people could have been seriously hurt! Pride is a powerful thing, but thank goodness you kept reaching out to that man to offer assistance until he put it aside, and realized that the need to be safe was much more important. Kudos and lots of hugs, RO
ReplyDeleteYes, pride can be a killer or the cause of get suffering if we refuse to let go of it.
DeleteSigh... Some people just don’t learn.
ReplyDeleteand some insist on learning the hard way.
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