heroism
The day before yesterday one of my new housemates was riding the bus. It swerved to avoid something and a woman was thrown into a window and seriously injured. My housemate, who has 10 years of life-guarding under her belt, dove into the situation, trying to stop the woman's bleeding and keep her head and neck from being further messed up until the ambulance arrived. No one else on the bus seemed to have any idea what to do.
My housemate's hands got covered in blood. Since she had some little cuts on them, she called an AIDS helpline to ask if she should be concerned or what she should do. Apparently the people on the helpline laughed at her concern. Which on the one hand was good, but on the other hand, wasn't really what she needed immediately after a frightening experience.
The long and short of it is that I am so proud to know someone who would respond like that in a moment of crisis. Since I felt inspired by her example, I thought I'd share it with you guys.
In other news, Switzerland was fantastically Swiss. All my unconscious stereotypes were confirmed, and there was a strange feeling of familiarity, as a certain buzz in the air strongly reminded me of southern Ontario.
I also got a kick out of the week of mediation training I was just on. Middle-aged Anglican vicars rock. One night after training they got into a run of funeral and wedding mishap stories. Almost all the stories started with "when I was a new vicar and my superior had just left for vacation..." Ah the naivety of youth! Now is the time to make stories.
My housemate's hands got covered in blood. Since she had some little cuts on them, she called an AIDS helpline to ask if she should be concerned or what she should do. Apparently the people on the helpline laughed at her concern. Which on the one hand was good, but on the other hand, wasn't really what she needed immediately after a frightening experience.
The long and short of it is that I am so proud to know someone who would respond like that in a moment of crisis. Since I felt inspired by her example, I thought I'd share it with you guys.
In other news, Switzerland was fantastically Swiss. All my unconscious stereotypes were confirmed, and there was a strange feeling of familiarity, as a certain buzz in the air strongly reminded me of southern Ontario.
I also got a kick out of the week of mediation training I was just on. Middle-aged Anglican vicars rock. One night after training they got into a run of funeral and wedding mishap stories. Almost all the stories started with "when I was a new vicar and my superior had just left for vacation..." Ah the naivety of youth! Now is the time to make stories.
posted by dm at 6:44 PM
4 Comments:
Thanks for your inspiring story. Sadly, I'm quite sure I would've been one of those who had no idea what to do. I'm glad your trip to Switzerland was a good one.
-A
lol! who says?
and yes...much chocolate! :d
And you don't want to actually share any of these humourous stories with us?
One guy (we'll call him Will), his superior had been asked to perform a recommitment blessing for this couple on their 25th wedding anniversary. But the said superior forgot he was going on holidays, so he sent Will (newly ordained) to do it instead.
Will gets to the house on the evening, wearing his robes (because his superior said it was a good idea), and finds this roaring party going on. The blessing was a surprise of the husaband for the wife, so no one knew the vicar was coming.
He goes in and everyone assumes he's a vicar-o-gram. (ie a stripper, dressed like a vicar.) Once he eventually sorted out the truth, that he was in fact a real vicar there to do a real religious ceremony, all was well. But apparently it took some convincing.
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