Helping a stranger

This evening on the way home from work, I was chanting Japa, (Hare Krishna!). I was nearly home when I noticed some flashing lights up ahead and as I got closer I realized something had very recently just happened and as I got closer I saw a body in the road. One man had ran over but looked like he had no idea what he should do so I quickly pulled over and ran to the man in the road. He had just been hit by a car and he was unconscious. I still had my bead bag wrapped around my hand. I checked his pulse while other people started running over and flipping him on his back and touching him, which they really shouldn’t have done, but I had no control over the situation. One woman declared she was a nurse and that he wasn’t breathing and started doing this and that to him as I sat there feeling his pulse, I knew that he was alive but this “nurse” thought for sure he wasn’t. An ambulence happened to be driving by with their sirens on to another accident when they came across everyone in the road trying to help a stranger. I could smell alcohol on the victim’s breath. Why on earth he had been running accross that section of the street I am really not sure. He was my age, late 20’s I think. Anyhow, some people came out and asked if this man had just been hit and they were his friends. It was a little strange if you ask me as they didn’t seem overly concerned. I got the gut feeling that they may have all been intoxicated. I looked down at my bead bag and just chanted for a moment until the ambulence attendees decided they would stay for this accident and got out to start helping the young man. The people that had hit them were two Mexicans and they sat in their car the entire time. They never got out. Why? I’m not really sure. Maybe they were scared because they weren’t legal or their car wasn’t completely legal but I thought it really odd that someone would just sit in their car and not try to offer any help. I think that the boy/man will live. Maybe this experience will help him gain some insight into the meaning and purpose of life. I thought that once about my brother too. He was in an awful car accident and he really shouldn’t be alive but somehow he managed to get by with barely any injuries. He felt really blessed for a very very short period of time, but quickly Maya erased the reality check that had been so preciously offered to him.

On a totally more positive note, Dena gave me a awesome CD with tons of kirtans on MP3! I listened to some at work today and she really picked a great mix of things. Thank you Dena!!