It's been a bizarre start to the year. Three seperate incidents. All very irregular occurrences.
It started when I was going to hang out with my bestie at the local mall.
1. While debating between getting bbt or starbys, we encountered a middle aged man lying flat on the ground. We quickly went over to the man, who was being attended by another passerby. Another witness told us that the man suddenly collapsed by the support column, and hit his head "really" hard on the concrete tiled floor. The fallen man reeked of booze, yet it was only 5pm in the evening. We asked some questions, but it was clear that the man was not sober. We were also afraid of him moving up, despite his claim that he was okay. In his condition, he may not know what's best for himself; besides, we wanted him checked to see if he had displaced or fractured anything from the big fall.We called 911 to get the EMS on scene, as well as the mall security. My friend and I waited outside on Yonge Street to flag down the EMS. However, it took the first response crew, the firefighters 20 minutes to arrive on scene. At which point, we were dismissed by the crew and we finally walked through the subway tunnel towards starbys.
* This made me wonder; how prepared am I for emergencies and dealing with such situations? What if, God forbid, the situation was worse and it required me to make more drastic actions? Would I have been ready to make it? It certainly easy to look and predict your action, but it's another when you're in the situation. JUst food for thought...*
2. On the way to starbys, we walked by a homeless man in his 30s. His name is Roger. Politely declining his request for money, we offered to buy Roger a sandwich instead. We walked to the nearest Loblaws, where he chose a sandwich. As we lined up to pay, my friend decided that he will cover the costs and gave the homeless man more than enough money to cover the sandwich. Then we bid farewell, as the man gratefully thanked us.
As we left, I couldn't help but be bothered by his body reeking alcohol. I asked my friend, "Hey, maybe you should've bought the sandwich for him. It's never good to just give away the money."
"I;m sure it's fine. He was in line to buy it. I am sure we can trust him."
I dunno," I said pessimistically.
Curious, we went back to Loblaws a minute after and asked the cashier if she had seen the man. The cashier told us that the man dropped the sandwich and took off with the money. We suspected he went upstairs to the LCBO.
*Morally speaking, you are compelled to help people in need. Yet sometimes it;s so hard to, or the situation goes out of control. As Christ followers, we are called to love our neighbours and the needy; and if the appropriate action is to offer them food or even a gentle smile sometimes when you encounter them, sometimes a good action may cause more harm...like this one, maybe. Also, just walking along a downtown core area, you would pass by many of these ppl. It would be quite unreasonable to buy a sandwich for everyone of them and every day you pass them too. How does this implicate our moral and social obligation? Somertimes, it's so hard to love. But Christ did just that. He loved the unlovable. "By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers." Just food for thought.*
3. Last week, in the middle of the night, noises across the street at the Laurier residences woke me up. At first the shouts pierced my dream. It was one shriek, the scream of a girl, that jolted me awake. It got to the point where I crawled out and peeked out through the blinds. There I saw, a group of about 20 people, split into two groups, shoving and throwing insults back and forth. Amongst that crowd, a girl screamed primarily at a guy. I couldn't see her, but I knew she was there. I ran down to try and wake my roommate up, but he was asleep. I was scared because the brawl looked out of control, and I can't go out and handle it. I decided to observe and call 911 if it gets out of hand. Luckily, they dispersed themselves after 30 minutes without further incident.
That shriek still haunts me though. Because it had a sense of urgency in her voice. It was so terrifying and chilling, as it sounded so helpless. Yet, it was so blurry, and I was fully conscious, and I didn't seem to see anything bad happen outside. But what if it did? What if something happened to that girl and I witnessed it?
*To this day it still haunts me. As a citizen, what is moral obligation in this situation? Going there to face 20 guys is just dumb. But what if the situation got out of control? I know I would've called 911 then for sure. But what if while waiting for the cops to show up, something bad happened and I just waited for it to happen? How ready am I for such emergencies? Just food for thought as I approach 20. *
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