At 9.45am on Saturday, June 23 2007, I killed a man. A perfectly ordinary man, on a perfectly ordinary summer's day. CCTV pictures show him entering the station, unremarkable among all the passengers going to the West End. He waited at the front of the platform until he could hear my train approaching, then he calmly stepped down on to the tracks and looked directly at me as he waited for the impact.Again I am reminded: suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.
Please read the entire article
Monday, July 21, 2008
Last Year I Killed a Man
From the Guardian…
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1 comment:
The Guardian is my favourite media source, and I nearly always buy a paper copy of the Saturday edition - and was really moved when I read this article at the weekend.
What gave me pause for thought was the way the train driver found the cold reaction of fellow commuters anxious to get to their destinations strangely comforting, because 'normality' was restored for a while.
This is something that I think about often - the indifference of strangers, and the with-holding of love by loving people, from strangers. I experience it daily, and feel somehow alienated and distanced from the world by it, and often worry that I too show coldness and indifference to stangers in my everyday life. Is it because we find comfort and security in 'routine'? Why should the withdrawal of our warmth and friendship from others constitute 'normality', and what are the cultural/ behavioural/ psychological barriers that exacerbate this indifference? Questions I pose, but can't answer ...
I'm glad the article caught your attention too.
I also like following the face to faith series in the saturday Guardian.
Peace & Light
Simon
;o)]
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