Mortified

Scribbled down on April 29th, 2009 by she
Posted in Random Burbling

This morning I busted up a minor disagreement between the puppy and our oldest kitty. Thanatos was pretty squirmy when I picked her up and scratched the side of my face beside my left ear. I took a quick peek in the mirror as I rushed out the door and it didn’t look like she’d broken skin.

Apparently I was wrong.

After arriving in the office my boss immediately said to me “the cat must have gotten you good”. I was bleeding profusely. I was embarrassed and rushed to the bathroom to clean up the blood and ensure the bleeding was done.

What really upset me was that I sat on the LRT this morning beside a woman (on my left) and across from two others and none of them said a thing. How disturbing. I was bleeding and no one mentioned a thing. No one asked if I was ok.

After getting off the LRT I stopped for coffee. The barista didn’t ask about the blood on my face.

So I was shocked when my boss mentioned it. I wasn’t worried about the scratch. I just couldn’t believe that I’d encountered so many people this morning and all of them ignored the obvious bloody elephant in the room.

I can’t imagine what it’s like to be homeless and dependant on the goodwill of others to surive. But I know they’re often ignored when encountered. What we pretend to be unable to see normally won’t hurt us. I know many people in larger cities have learned to avert their eyes and ignore what’s going on around them as a self-defence mechanism. You never know when meeting someone’s gaze might be interpreted as offensive.

I worry about society when we stop paying attention to and caring for those around us. We should be reaching out to those around us in whatever way we can. Especially as times get tougher. That’s why I’m attending #twilightyeg on the 20th of May. Royal LePage is hosting a charity event to raise funds for local woman’s shelter(s). I encourage everyone in Edmonton with the means to support this worthy cause to do so.


You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.


Leave a Reply