[mikeh]

I'm at work right now, and right across the street from my office is a woman in obvious emotional turmoil, standing on a ledge on the outside wall of a shopping mall, about 4 stories off the ground.

The police have cordoned off the area for several blocks...our building's main entrance is on a side street so no-one is trapped in the building...and 3 officers are doing their best to talk her down.

We have instructed all our staff to NOT look out of the windows and hope that all other offices are doing the same, so she doesn't look across the street and see a bunch of people staring back at her. The uncomfortable truth is that we gave these directions as much to minimize the risk of emotional trauma to our staff as to avoid any additional stress for the woman on the ledge.

So I am sitting here at my computer, with the blinds directly behind me closed so she can't even see in. I feel a desire to sneak a peek even as I recoil from the idea that I might see her jump. And all the time, I am hoping that I will see, out of a side window (I have spent enough years working that I have the fabled 'corner office') that traffic is flowing again, because that will probably mean they have talked her down.

I have to admit, a small part of me wants to be watching....probably that part of our brains that makes us watch car races in order to witness crashes. But I would be sick if I were watching and she jumped...so there's no way I'm looking.

It's a grey, damp day and that, right now, reflects my mood. I hope she gets talked down soon and gets the help she needs.

Having this sort of think happen so close to us, in plain view, makes me realize how trivial what I think of as 'my problems' really are.

[Winstonm]

What gets to me in these situations is how we as humans can get our priorities so backwards - the top priority is to live - 10 years from today whatever was going on at the time will be only a faint remembrance of a bad time survived.

[kenberg]

Nothing much can be said or done at least not by you or me. I have never had any wish to see it, and I really doubt you do either. Wanting to know how it is progressing is a different thing entirely, and that could motivate you to look. I see that as simply normal interest, not in any way ghoulish. You cannot do anything, but you cannot help but want to know how it is turning out.

I hope they talk her down, of course I do, and you do, but we can't do it. Good luck to her and to the professionals who try to deal with it.

[jjbrr]

Winstonm, on 2013-September-27, 18:56, said:

What gets to me in these situations is how we as humans can get our priorities so backwards - the top priority is to live - 10 years from today whatever was going on at the time will be only a faint remembrance of a bad time survived.

Well, everyone I know has got a reason to say Put the past away.

[aguahombre]

jjbrr, on 2013-September-28, 01:07, said:

Well, everyone I know has got a reason to say Put the past away.

That will not be easy for anyone unfortunate enough to see the worst conclusion of this incident. I truly hope no one had to.