Here’s the story. On my walk to “morning streching” this I saw a black dog, curled up in the sun, yelping for no apparent reason. I looked at him/her as I passed and a quick assement assumes he/she must have gotten hit by a car and limped off of the road (he wasn’t too far away from a road.)
I walked on.
Should I have felt compelled to do something? Maybe this post is something inside of me saying I should do something.
Anyway, at any given time something fucked up is happening somewhere. Why feel bad when I see it? He was there all morning (and maybe all night.) If I had taken a different route I would not have seen him (or maybe would have saw something else fucked up.) Are people only suppose to do something when they see it?
Note: I’m sure someone’s going to freak out and want to know where the dog is. I’ll gladly help someone find it if they ask (PM/call me if you have my number,) I have some time this morning, but I can’t do much else and only have a few more hours of free time. He was near that parking lot west of the Zhongzheng bridge coming into Yonghe. Helping the dog wasn’t the point of my post though.
Pretty compelling post, miltownkid.
I think a better way to put it is the difference between wanting to see pain or not when you know it’s there.
It’s easy to see the pain in dogs. It’s not always that easy with people, we hide our aches and pains too well, unlike dogs.
To answer your question, I think that yes, people should do something. I don’t think you can do something EVERY TIME you see pain, but when you do, I’m thinking it has to be better than not. Of course we should take others’ pain as ours at least once in a while or else the world would be an even worse place to live in.
"If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself but to your own estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.”
-Marcus Aurelius
It’s only those who are aware of another’s suffering who can do something about it - those unaware cannot.
If someone had walked past you as you lay screaming in agony, how would you feel? Would you be angry, or feel let down? How would that compare to your feelings towards those you didn’t see, who didn’t witness your suffering?
I’ll go check that area. Send me your phone number if you want to give me better directions: 0920 620 109.
Thanks!
Sean