Questions

[sabremeister]

Going back to the incident on the train on Tuesday. People have have posted "well done"s (thank you). But ever since, I have been trying to avoid asking the following question, as it will inevitably lead to another one, and I'm not sure I like the answers that can be arrived at.

What sort of a person would I have been if I hadn't done anything?

I don't know how long the incident took. It could have been as little as ten seconds, it could have been as much as a minute. During which time, I was the only one in the vestibule to move. If it was ten seconds, I must have been moving like greased lightning, no-one else had time to react. If a minute - Hell, if any more than 20 seconds - I was hideously slow getting to the door, and yet still no-one else moved. I do know that I COULD NOT have just stood by and watched that kid probably lose his hand. How fast do those doors open? I had stepped over my case, dropped my sword bag, and was grabbing the edge before they had more than half-opened. Probably not that fast, but fast enough. I, half-asleep and hungry, was the only one to react in time to hold the door open. Was I just faster than anyone else? Or ...

What sort of a person was everyone else that they COULD just stand by and do nothing?

Terrifying thought. I was sharing a coach with unfeeling, inhuman automatons. I can't have been that fast. I can't have. Not in my physical state. There was one person nearer than me, at least one at the same distance. I pushed past the one, and should have had to avoid colliding with the other. I didn't. At the end of it, neither of them had moved. My fencing has given me slightly faster-than-average reactions, but generally only when I'm concentrating, something out of the blue like that would probably freeze me for a second. Especially when I'm tired. But those doors would not take more than a second to open. I can't have been the only person to move. I can't have. The alternative is just too terrifying.

Comments

[cat63.livejournal.com]

Another possibility is that some of them, at least, just weren't paying attention. People can be amazingly oblivious at times, I've found.

Then, of course, there's the way that many folk these days are terrified of so much as touching someone else's child,even to save them from injury, lest they be scooped up by the police, branded a paedophile and locked up for life.

[rgemini.livejournal.com]

Most people on a train do not pay attention to what anyone else is doing. Try travelling on the tube in rush hour. The only way people cope is by pulling in their awareness to their own little space. It takes time and a suitably strong stimulus to break that convention.

It is very probable that you were the only person looking that way and aware of what was happening. No-one would stand by and willingly see a child get hurt (no-one sane that is).

After that, in my experience in an emergency people seem to fall into three categories - call them doers, ditherers and flappers. They also take different amounts of time to assess a situation. You were the right person in the right place at the right time to make a difference. It doesn't mean the others were callous or would not have reacted, just that you were quicker.

I still say Well Done You!