My roommate and I were going to see The Dark Knight on Saturday and then my best friend and I were going to go to the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale...for me, this is like Christmas come early!, and then see Mama Mia and grab dinner. It was supposed to be our last hurrah before she gives birth to her first....so I was really looking forward to it.
The weekend was off to a good start. A friend had flown in from TX for a wedding so we hung out on Friday night. Roomie and I went to the movies on Saturday. Well, almost. She parked the car while I saved seats. The theatre was packed! The only seats left were in the front section. As I looked around I spied some better seats in the top portion of the theatre. So, I left my bag on our seats and was going to go ask if the other seats were free. Suddenly time began to crawl as if someone had hit "Slow Motion." I stepped onto the carpet, or so I thought, only to miss a step I hadn't realized was there. My foot came down onto the floor and my ears were filled with a sickening "CRUNCH" as I felt my ankle give out below me. I fell to the ground with a great thud and landed hard. The wind was knocked out of me for a moment and I just laid there, partly out of shock and partly from embarrassment. Oh my gosh! I just fell in front of the entire theatre and then...pain. It seared from the tip of my toes to the top of my head. My foot felt like it had been crushed...remember the scene in Misery? (Ok, that's fairly dramatic...but I've never handled pain all that well.)
I sat up and looked around. People were staring at me. And yet, no one asked me if I was ok or needed help. NO ONE. This woman just sat there and stared at me. I was clearly in pain and she sat there looking and eating her popcorn. Then, a theatre employee walked in, looked at me, turned around, and left! He never even asked me if I was ok! I managed to pull myself up into my seat and held in the tears...if there's anything I am really good at it's holding in the tears and stuffing my emotions!
What's wrong with people!? How can they just ignore someone who has obviously been injured? I know if I were in their shoes (or seats actually) I would have been prompted to act. Is it just that I was raised better than they were? Did my parents do a better job? I don't necessarily think so. I think that slowly, but surely our society has become numb to actual human interaction. Think about it....we live in an age where the means for which we can communicate are limitless and yet...we don't have any real contact. It's no longer good enough to talk to a person on our phones...we text. We no longer get together with our friends...we 'hook' up with them on myspace or Facebook. We no longer write...we email. We're so segregated from all real human interaction that when we need people the most they don't know how to engage. We are killing our culture! It scares me to think about our nation's future. Will we all end up staying in our homes and working from a computer so that we can avoid all types of interpersonal contact? If so, how do we survive? How do we thrive?
The answer is: we don't. We were created for relationship. First, relationship with God our Father thru Jesus Christ. Secondly, with humankind. We weren't meant to walk this life alone. We were created to interact, communicate, and help others. It just seems to me that we're ignoring or losing this crucial part of what makes us human. Nearly every species on earth was created for community....it's interesting to me that humans look for ways to create better avenues of communication/community, but what ends up happening is isolation.
So, if you were sitting in the Metro mall Harkins theatre on Saturday, July 19 for the 3:00pm showing of The Dark Knight, saw me fall and failed to have the human decency to ask me how I was: SHAME ON YOU. I hope and pray that you never have to experience the hurt that comes with the realization that no one cares to reach out and engage. Shame on you and shame on me if I have ever made anyone feel like this...God forgive me.
2 comments:
I can ot imagine what it was like to sit there hurt, knowing that no one was going to help! Funny, I never thought about the texting vs. calling thing and totally think you are right - we constantly seek the next easiest way to communicate - which means that it is anything but communication. Great blog!
Lees
Thank you for sharing this--it is so true. I am ashamed of "us" as a society that tends to leans toward non-involvement.
I am challenged thru your words to be set apart. To re-think and re-"do" how I engage those around me. How I communicate and invest myself in the various divine encounters that God orchestrates for us.
Sorry you fell, thank for the reminder.
Cindy R
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