Unto the Defenseless

A set of jazz/bassanova and a packed van later we hit 90 east to crash friday night out with heavy eye lids. Five minutes of sleepy stupor brought us closer to one of those covered walk ways that cross the highways. I always look up to see if we'll pass under some one walking over us the same time we are driving under them and up ahead i see a female figure of white sweatshirt arms that appear to me to be in a struggle of sorts with a taller male shadow. I see a flash of light open and swirl around as though as an S.O.S for help from the beacon of a cell phone.

The next exit happens to be ours and i wrestle if what i saw was real in the time of snap judgments. I think upon that syndrome that nobody steps into help someone in trouble because they think someone else will step in, i think of the poor lady that syndrome is named after who screamed her last desperation's at open windows of brick apartment buildings while she was robbed and raped.

I snap back out of my thoughts, i interrupt Bruce's conversation, explain the possible violence, instruct how to get back to the walkway and we cut through one way streets. I rush out of the van running several blocks of barking dogs and unkept sidewalks, the boys (ben,bruce,and patrick) closely behind. I still see the figures over the walkway, i still see movement to suggest disturbance, patrick over takes me, we run up the escalating sidewalk to the walkway. I don't know what will happen, i just know if she's being attacked that it has to stop with any measure that i have and that we have together. We reach the top to see and identify their movements as that of young romance. Thirty feet away we look to make sure its not unwanted romance and then walk away, this time our steps at a slower pace over the danger of uneven sidewalks.

Adrenaline fades and leaves me for the first time considering the extent of what could have happened. What was i running into? What could have happened to me? Could i have been running to my end if this person was armed? I dismiss the threats to myself and feel the honor of entering into an unknown danger with my dearest friends, all putting their lives in great risk with mine to stop a harm i thought may have been occurring.I think thats what my grandfather would have done, no consideration to self preservation over the threat to someone else's life. I think the actions we took were more then a chivalry politeness, i think it an honoring of the code to 'defend the defenseless' and now my thoughts take this to a greater measure of carrying this into an awareness that surrounds how i live. I look back between my caught up breaths at the once thought violence to see the couple walking hand in hand back to descend from the walk way. I'm wired past sleep now, i've never done anything like this.

I explain a day later to my mum the events of the past night, and her conclusion was "maybe God was seeing if you would respond so that you will respond in the future when someone is being harmed". I pray to respond to the defenseless with whatever God will give me to counter their oppression, i pray to pass the test every time.