It’s a warm day today. It’s like 22° C which, by my standards, is pretty fucking warm. I can’t deal very well with the heat, so the 30 minute trip between my air conditioned workplace and windows-wide-open apartment was like torture. I was looking forward to getting home and getting out of the damp clothes.
My stop was up next, and I stood waiting for the bus to come to a halt. Out of the window of the bus, I noticed a very old man. He was struggling to get his Walker over the curb to the sidewalk. The Walker was filled to the brim with the old mans groceries and bags were hanging off the sides. His whole upper body was nearly horizontal, and it looked like the Walker was doing everything it could to help his legs keep him standing.
I got off the bus, walked over to the man, and asked him if he needed any help. He asked me if I could help get the Walker away from the bike-path, and we quickly got him to safety. I bid him farewell and walked in the other direction, towards my home. I turned around and felt a stab in my heart. He was still struggling to push the Walker, even as it was on the sidewalk. I walked a little further and looked again, and to my relief he was moving at a slightly faster pace now. I often put on a hard exterior, but in reality, I’m rather soft on the inside, and I feel a strong urge to help people who can’t help themselves.
“So what, do you want a medal?”
No no, of course not. That’s not the point of this post. I helped an old man, just like anybody would. Right?
WRONG! While I was walking the mere 300 meters from my bus stop to the old man, no less than 11 bikers drove straight past him. Young and old, but all in a perfectly fit condition to stop for 20 seconds to help out the poor fellow. But by god, wouldn’t it be terrible if they had to delay their rush to the park, the beach or the bar? And what an ungodly strain it would put on them to drag an aluminium frame half a meter over a 5 cm curb. Godness no, please, go on ahead, I’m sure survival of the fittest will take care of him!
I was relieved to find that my sympathy for the old man was quickly replaced by fuming rage, hotter than the burning sun above me. What kind of self-centred universe do you live in, if you can’t take out a few seconds to help an old man who is left to his own devices? Is it really the kind of world we live in?
FUCK, that pisses me off!
Most people don’t watch their surroundings when they are heading for a desired goal. This is basically the human nature – it’s not that they don’t care, it’s more, that they don’t see. (or at least, that’s what I hope)
When I moved into a bigger city I had an experience of a similar kind in a bus. In my old village, I never had to use a bus to get from A to B. However, after about two weeks, it became routine and I didn’t have to think about it anymore. Simply get into the bus, wait until we arrive and leave.
One fine day I was sitting in the bus like every so often. Some people entered at a station.. And suddenly the man on the seat behind me asked someone who entered “Would you like to sit?”. The person that entered was an elderly woman who wasn’t too secure standing in the bus. I was ashamed of myself, not noticing something so obvious. And at the same time, I was amazed, how many people didn’t notice/care either.
hey dan , nice post, well sadly what you typing is a more common thing than you think, not long ago ….mmm 2 years or so a newspaper here in norway did and article about almost the same topic – where they had a reporter on the street dressed up a tourist that suddenly became ill , a camera team was hiding in the public to see the reaction of crowed , not fun to read at all
at one of the bigges train stations the reporter layed there for 2 hour before any one asked if they could help him…….the conclution on the storry was best not to get ill if you are traveling alone a sad story to read….
personally i think ppl are to affraid to ask or maybe to imbarest, even though as you say only takse 10 sec to ask and some more time to help some.
Been a while since I was here. Nice to see that you’re still blogging a little bit. Unbelievable that you haven’t noticed this before, but I frequently think that this world is indeed a big pile of shit, so many bad people… greed, naivity, self-centeredness etc is just way too common. A close friend of mine took his life recently, partly because he didn’t want to be part of such a world. Personally I think we should make the best of it, perhaps we can improve it, but if we can’t then we should prob just join the greedy and naive and try to enjoy life as assholes.
I guess …
well you’re part of this world so it can’T be too bad, can it?
Honestly, I don’t think püeople are fundamentally good or bad, they are just … people and that’s it.
We can be lazy, we can be curageos etc.
Let’s be honest. Everybody has his proud and his shameful moments. I think the best we can do is to strive for the best while trying not to lose hope over our failures. The thing about life is…no matter what, there is no real alternative
Qieth where are you?
Im right here
uhm that happens in every town in every country sadly but true and most ppl dont wanna ask since the person that you should ask might be sick and the others dont wanna catch any, or second reason if they ask the person that looks like be needing help could react agressivly on the question. that have happened where i live.. that makes many ppl not ask at all better let it be. better safe then sorry so to say. but i do ask older ppl if they need a hand or 2
. so i am not that selfsentered or do that word spell selfcentered. argh i suck at english :S bleh. and many just dont wanna be involved at all that is also sad indeed.