serenissima (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
serenissima) wrote2006-06-23 11:10 pm
serenissima) wrote2006-06-23 11:10 pm
Decent beings
Back in early April or maybe even late March, I had a week with a set of coincidences that had me pondering. A nurses' aide was returning to work after medical leave of absence due to on-the-job injury. She complained to me about a feud she had with a nurse on her unit, which apparently had started with an off-hand offensive remark. The aide told me that when she fell while trying to carry out her duties with a patient, causing the injury that put her out of work for several months, this nurse did not help her up but just stood by and watched.
The day after I heard this eye-opening story, I was heading across the street to the park during my lunch hour when a older woman on the opposite street corner tripped on the sidewalk and fell. She may have hit her head on the pavement; I came along right after and didn't witness the fall, but she had a spot of blood on her face. In less than a minute, a crowd of about a dozen people gathered around the woman and was asking her if she was all right and what kind of help she needed. More than half of them whipped out cell phones, ready to dial 911 if she chose.
She didn't want to call an ambulance, so two men carried her backpack for her and helped her across the street to our facility, where she had been coming to visit her husband. I went with them. They explained the situation to the security guard at the front desk, and one man stayed with the woman until the director of security came up to meet her. At that point I also left, impressed by the number of strangers who rushed to help her, by the solicitousness of the two men who spent several minutes of their time to make sure she was safe, and by the stark contrast with the anecdote I'd heard just recently.
The next day I went back to the park. A few school groups were visiting that day, and one small boy had gotten separated from his group. Several people were helping him look for his class. I continued with my walk, since it looked like the boy had enough helpers. But the incident reaffirmed my faith in basic, common decency. If you encounter a lost child, you try to help. If someone falls to the ground in front of you, you try to help. Right? But there was so much spite in the relationship between the nurse and the aide that the nurse didn't offer the help that I assume (I hope!) she would have offered to someone she didn't know at all. I guess some people find it more difficult to help acquaintances than strangers. How very sad.
And then![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ursulav posted about her experience finding a mortally wounded cat on her lawn and remarked, "when you have a dying cat in the front yard, of course you take it to the vet, what other choice do we, as decent beings, have?" That comment cemented the series of incidents in my mind as something to write about, though I didn't get to it until nearly three months later, and I'm still not sure exactly what my point is.
The day after I heard this eye-opening story, I was heading across the street to the park during my lunch hour when a older woman on the opposite street corner tripped on the sidewalk and fell. She may have hit her head on the pavement; I came along right after and didn't witness the fall, but she had a spot of blood on her face. In less than a minute, a crowd of about a dozen people gathered around the woman and was asking her if she was all right and what kind of help she needed. More than half of them whipped out cell phones, ready to dial 911 if she chose.
She didn't want to call an ambulance, so two men carried her backpack for her and helped her across the street to our facility, where she had been coming to visit her husband. I went with them. They explained the situation to the security guard at the front desk, and one man stayed with the woman until the director of security came up to meet her. At that point I also left, impressed by the number of strangers who rushed to help her, by the solicitousness of the two men who spent several minutes of their time to make sure she was safe, and by the stark contrast with the anecdote I'd heard just recently.
The next day I went back to the park. A few school groups were visiting that day, and one small boy had gotten separated from his group. Several people were helping him look for his class. I continued with my walk, since it looked like the boy had enough helpers. But the incident reaffirmed my faith in basic, common decency. If you encounter a lost child, you try to help. If someone falls to the ground in front of you, you try to help. Right? But there was so much spite in the relationship between the nurse and the aide that the nurse didn't offer the help that I assume (I hope!) she would have offered to someone she didn't know at all. I guess some people find it more difficult to help acquaintances than strangers. How very sad.
And then
ursulav posted about her experience finding a mortally wounded cat on her lawn and remarked, "when you have a dying cat in the front yard, of course you take it to the vet, what other choice do we, as decent beings, have?" That comment cemented the series of incidents in my mind as something to write about, though I didn't get to it until nearly three months later, and I'm still not sure exactly what my point is.