Sidewalk Therapy
October 20, 2010
ROGER writes:
What a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful man.
Just to show that a group of people at a crisis doesn’t always act like a vicious mob, years ago I chanced by a crowd that had just formed where a jumper was spotted up on a building. You read how in these circumstances, everyone is chanting “Jump! Jump!” Well I assure you, we were all hollering at him to stop, reconsider, get back in, etc. One woman was yelling that Jesus loved him (I’m a Jew, but I applaud the sentiment). Particularly impressive was the man near me who (at the top of his voice, so he could only get out a few words at a time) bellowed, “YOU’RE TAKING…A PERMANENT…SOLUTION TO… A TEMPORARY…PROBLEM!!” I looked at him and said, “Damn, you’re good!” He replied, “Throw it all up there and hope something sticks.” After a few minutes the police arrived, and chased us away so the experts could handle things. Eventually the poor fellow was talked down. Anyway, I don’t see how we did any harm. It couldn’t have hurt for him to know that we were rooting for him.
Laura writes:
Ha! What a great story. If you could have stood there longer maybe somebody could have yelled up Aquinas’s Five Proofs for the Existence of God.
It must have been heartening for that man, to look down in a busy city and see all those strangers in a panic that his life may end.
Roger writes:
For what it’s worth, that’s what happened.
In moving us off, the police gave us the standard cop treatment – that exasperated, world-weary, condescending attitude of the assistant principal dealing with boys he catches smoking behind the gym. We were miffed. Not that we were heroes, and it didn’t cost us anything. But we were only trying to do what seemed right. What did they expect us to do? Ignore him? Draw a bull’s eye on the sidewalk and make bets?
Laura writes:
I think that’s why Don Ritchie in Australia is successful. He’s not a bureaucrat. Imagine standing on a cliff and seeing the twinkling gaze of an old man asking you in for tea.
Nora writes:
The story of Don Ritchie made my day. What a wonderful man. His actions are an example of how the most effective form of charity is always one-on-one. No impersonal government program could have saved those lives. He also shows how one’s God given talents can be used in unexpected ways.
Roger writes:
If you could have stood there longer maybe somebody could have yelled up Aquinas’s Five Proofs for the Existence of God.”
Ouch, there’s a thought. You can see the thing build up to where the Hegelians are throttling the Kantians, and the neopositivists are sitting on the Epicureans, while the guy stands up there forgotten.
I noticed in the article about Ritchie, it said, “In years past, Ritchie would scale the fence and sometimes physically drag people to safety. Once a woman nearly hauled him over the edge with her.”
Oh bloody. This man has —– like the Diquis petrospheres. Heaven forgive me for speaking thus to a lady, but it had to be said.
Mrs. P. writes:
Something I have become keenly aware of in our society is our excessive dependence on professionals when we are dealing with problems that come up with our family members or others. It is as if we think we cannot act on our own volition and need permission instead from experts before we do anything. We seem to have lost confidence in ourselves and our ability to successfully tackle the hard problems of living that arise.
Many times in recent years I have had to enlighten my adult children by telling them that they do not need permission or guidance from a counselor before talking to one of their children about serious matters. Professional help is needed at times, but not always and not to today’s extent. Certainly we should not allow ourselves to become paralyzed parents until expert help is obtained.
I have always thought that, by and large, parents know their children better than anyone else does and love their children more than anyone else does. We need to understand this and return to using our common sense that parents in the past used to inform them.
