Our own Private Insular world.

Yesterday I saw a post on Facebook about a local A road that had been closed for a Junction or two due to an accident, an air-ambulance had lifted someone or multiple people from the scene. There were many comments on this post; my own included thanking the man who posted this for this vital information that would save me and others from using that road. I left for my trip out, used a different route, still snarled up with traffic as every vehicle was being diverted. It took me 55 minutes to reach my destination that would normally take 25-30 minutes, and I was filtering through riding my scooter!

I looked again later at the thread of comments that had followed; one lady had commented that she hoped the person was alright which prompted a thought provoking response from someone else. He said that she had been the only person who had mentioned the victim as opposed to the disruption caused to their lives, which was true. I am equally sure that most people on there, myself included are not heartless but somehow we had fixated only on the way it affected us, how inconvenienced we would be.There are some people out there for whom it is more than a thoughtlessness based on the insular focus of their own lives though. For some people, even when it has been pointed out to them they don’t feel abashed and spare a thought for the victim. It made me think about a conversation I’d had a few years ago when some poor soul had taken his life on the train tracks, and everyone was up in arms due to the delay. I remember pointing out that at least they were still alive, their state of mind was intact. That man must have been tortured to have reached the point when he decided that suicide was his only option. I was blown away by the callousness of the response, which was that he could have been less selfish by choosing a venue for his demise that wouldn’t inconvenience other people. I had to remind myself that this person clearly had not experienced anything in her life that would allow for her to understand even a fraction of this man’s suffering. We all live in our little bubbles but when we are reminded of other people’s suffering it is natural to feel empathy. If she was unable to reach inside herself to find that then she was lacking in some way and and maybe, she was the one to be pitied.