Would You Intervene?

Yesterday I pulled a couple out of the lake. One had fallen out of their little bass boat and the other had jumped in to save her. I saw this go down from the dock at my parents’ lake house. I told my father to get his boat keys and we motored out to see if these two strangers were all right.

The woman was worse for wear. Though thankfully she had been wearing a life vest, she had apparently panicked when hitting the water and taken a few big breaths of the lake. Her (I’m assuming) husband was doing what he could to calm her, but hadn’t realized how far they were drifting from their boat nor had he thought of how he was going to get her back to it and out of the water.

My father and I helped them onto our boat and allowed them to catch their breath. Both were shaken up and perhaps a little embarrassed.  We carefully helped them back on their own boat and saw them head off toward the harbor.

Not what I would call a heroic deed. The waters here aren’t that cold and the shore isn’t that far away from any given point. Had we not come along and offered to help, these people would have most likely survived their ordeal. However, the incident reaffirmed something that I sometimes forget, which is the value of the willingness to offer assistance.

I judge people. Not a unique personality trait of mine, mind you. It’s instinctive to assess an individual upon first introduction. Perhaps it is an evolutionary trait that exists to prevent us from ignoring potentially dangerous individuals. Who knows?

I judge people based on a combination of both superficial and character levels. Superficial traits are things you can observe immediately, such as clothes, fitness (or lack thereof), and speech.  From those observations I assign judgments based off perceptions and biases.  Character traits require a deeper level of discovery. Traits such as honesty, humor, reliability, and aggression may not be identifiable at first.

I wish my judgments were more character based than they are, but it is difficult to ignore certain superficial aspects of a person. Yet one trait that I value more than any other is one that also goes deeper than any character trait. It is one’s willingness to offer assistance.

It is a trait that we don’t often get an opportunity to display. How often to you walk by a burning building or stumble upon a mugging? And in both of those situations not being properly trained may just result in more casualties. But from time to time we come across those in need, and when we do we are faced with the decision—do I help or keep on walking?

It is never convenient to try to help someone. Choosing to keep driving when you witness a car wreck is easier than pulling over. But for me it is the truest test of merit.

I arrived at this conclusion last year while walking in Washington, D.C.  While getting hopelessly lost, a friend and I witnessed a man on the street suffer a seizure. He fell to the ground and began bleeding from the mouth. My friend, a third onlooker and I immediately rushed to the man’s side. The man had bitten off a part of his tongue and had locked his jaw shut. He was bleeding profusely and not breathing. It took all three of us pressing against his jaw to get the man to open his mouth a take a breath before he drowned in his own blood. To date, this is probably the most alert I have ever been in my life.

While we were still trying to save this man, all I could focus on was his face and thinking I’m going to watch this poor guy die on the street.  It was only after he had started breathing again that I noticed just how busy this particular D.C. street corner was. I sat on the sidewalk in awe of just how many people had literally walked over us as we got wrist deep in this guy’s blood. I was disgusted, not with the gore but with the indifference shown by the average pedestrian.

Perhaps that is too stern. And in all fairness, a fourth onlooker had stopped and called 9-1-1. Still, that made it clear to me that there exists two types of people in the world, those who will intervene to help others, and those who won’t.

Again, I am not advocating rushing into burning buildings or leaping in front of bullets. Not every situation is as obvious as a bleeding man on the sidewalk or a couple floating in the lake. Sometimes those in need have a stifled cry for help. You may know someone who needs assistance; whether they are struggling with money, or issues at home, or battling with addiction. It is one thing to be able to recognize a person in trouble, but when you do, you have to ask yourself, “Which one of those two types of people am I?”

Here’s to asking the hard questions

Cheers,

James