Oddly, I'd never heard, or remember hearing the term, "Mercy Among Men" before.
We had an overnight snowstorm this past Sunday and I woke up to about 8 inches of snow. Although the day warmed up to about 40, I was none too happy about having to snow-blow. But around 1PM I got out there.
I had finished clearing in front of the mailbox across the street, had crossed the street to begin my driveway, a truck started to go by, then slowed and stopped. The driver backed up so I was at his door, an older man, likely my age, about 60.
He was interested in buying a house in my area, the general area of my town I live in. I have some idea of what the houses on my road are worth, as I bought mine a few years ago. He had $75,000 and needed a house yesterday. He asked if the half acre across the street with a condemned house and a long, mobile home looking like shed was for sale. I told him I doubted it - the owners were planning on building a house there in the future.
I gave him the phone number of the realtor who helped me buy my house.
At some point he pulled the truck off the road and got out to talk. I wasn't comfortable talking to this stranger but the chat so far had gone well, and was when I asked him why he needed a house now? Did he not have a home? I mean his truck was new, with a plow, and he didn't look too unwell-off, especially having $75k in cash to buy a house. I was intrigued, though nervous.
He shook his head slightly recalling things and said, "I can't stay where I live".
That took me by surprise. "Why", I asked.
"Long story", he replied. "Tourettes".
"What?"
To summarize, he claimed to have Tourettes syndrome. I asked if he meant he has sudden out-bursts of speech, as I had worked with a man with the condition. He shook his head again. "No stereotypes", he said. "It is different for everyone who has it."
He said it was caused by a brain injury, though I didn't ask for specifics. I was surprised when he said symptoms (were not necessarily blurting things) could be as mild as anxiety or depression, or as serious as being bi-polar, manic, or with schizophrenia.
He had been in a grocery store, had heard of a new diet of certain nuts and vegetables. He said he was talking with the produce manager and that before he knew it he'd gotten too excited, his brain reated and his legs fell out from under him. Firemen were shopping and next thing he knew he was in an ambulance hooked up to IV's receiving Nacann. The fire chief was present and his condition had been determined to be a drug overdose.
He claims he tried to explain his condition, but the chief wasn't going to buy it. He became angry, fueled by whatever his Tourettes was doing. He pulled off the IV's and was bound.
Needless to say, he was bitter that things had gone so poorly and felt he could not live in the area any longer and had decided he wanted to move to Maine.
I asked, but can't you work things out with the fire chief, the town? He said no, he had hoped for "mercy among men", but there was none.
Now it was my turn to shake my head, and I said, well, "mercy among men" seems to be a thing of the past". He said not at all, I can show you how easy mercy among men can be. He walked to his truck and got a new teddy bear out of it. "This is for you", he said, "a gesture of mercy among men". He asked if he could plow my drive-way as a thank-you for my help, I said sure and he left. I gave the teddy bear to my neighbor's daughter.
The whole thing, the timing was rather good, as I was struggling with a fairly long time friend who got upset with me for a minor disagreement, who wanted nothing more to do with me. Mercy among men. And it got me thinking more. Mercy among humankind - stopping the hurt.
Recently there was the shooting in Parkland Florida, at the Marjory Douglas HS. I've been thinking a lot about the mass killings for the past few years, and why. What is different now than back in the 60's when I was in high school? Then realized, countries have been committed genocide and there was Hitler, the Holocaust, and the KKK and the world seems to seeth with hate, prejudice, domination and greed.
I thought of the missing person cases I'd helped with, written about on my blog, Brianna Maitland and Maura Murray. The thought that comes to my mind is we lack the ability to show mercy, as not doing the above mentioned heinous acts shows mercy. Easy for me to say as I feel I lack the gene, if it is a gene that causes such lack of respect for others, and a show of mercy.
I strongly believe we need to learn not to be naive, or overnight start trusting strangers or stop what we're doing to make the planet safer to live in. But I think perhaps sometimes all it takes is a gift teddy bear. Listening to others and having empathy. If only someone pent on destruction or mayhem would instead buy a teddy bear and give it to whoever is in charge, and admit, I want to hurt you, but I'm giving you this teddy bear as an example of mercy among men.
We had an overnight snowstorm this past Sunday and I woke up to about 8 inches of snow. Although the day warmed up to about 40, I was none too happy about having to snow-blow. But around 1PM I got out there.
I had finished clearing in front of the mailbox across the street, had crossed the street to begin my driveway, a truck started to go by, then slowed and stopped. The driver backed up so I was at his door, an older man, likely my age, about 60.
He was interested in buying a house in my area, the general area of my town I live in. I have some idea of what the houses on my road are worth, as I bought mine a few years ago. He had $75,000 and needed a house yesterday. He asked if the half acre across the street with a condemned house and a long, mobile home looking like shed was for sale. I told him I doubted it - the owners were planning on building a house there in the future.
I gave him the phone number of the realtor who helped me buy my house.
At some point he pulled the truck off the road and got out to talk. I wasn't comfortable talking to this stranger but the chat so far had gone well, and was when I asked him why he needed a house now? Did he not have a home? I mean his truck was new, with a plow, and he didn't look too unwell-off, especially having $75k in cash to buy a house. I was intrigued, though nervous.
He shook his head slightly recalling things and said, "I can't stay where I live".
That took me by surprise. "Why", I asked.
"Long story", he replied. "Tourettes".
"What?"
To summarize, he claimed to have Tourettes syndrome. I asked if he meant he has sudden out-bursts of speech, as I had worked with a man with the condition. He shook his head again. "No stereotypes", he said. "It is different for everyone who has it."
He said it was caused by a brain injury, though I didn't ask for specifics. I was surprised when he said symptoms (were not necessarily blurting things) could be as mild as anxiety or depression, or as serious as being bi-polar, manic, or with schizophrenia.
He had been in a grocery store, had heard of a new diet of certain nuts and vegetables. He said he was talking with the produce manager and that before he knew it he'd gotten too excited, his brain reated and his legs fell out from under him. Firemen were shopping and next thing he knew he was in an ambulance hooked up to IV's receiving Nacann. The fire chief was present and his condition had been determined to be a drug overdose.
He claims he tried to explain his condition, but the chief wasn't going to buy it. He became angry, fueled by whatever his Tourettes was doing. He pulled off the IV's and was bound.
Needless to say, he was bitter that things had gone so poorly and felt he could not live in the area any longer and had decided he wanted to move to Maine.
I asked, but can't you work things out with the fire chief, the town? He said no, he had hoped for "mercy among men", but there was none.
Now it was my turn to shake my head, and I said, well, "mercy among men" seems to be a thing of the past". He said not at all, I can show you how easy mercy among men can be. He walked to his truck and got a new teddy bear out of it. "This is for you", he said, "a gesture of mercy among men". He asked if he could plow my drive-way as a thank-you for my help, I said sure and he left. I gave the teddy bear to my neighbor's daughter.
The whole thing, the timing was rather good, as I was struggling with a fairly long time friend who got upset with me for a minor disagreement, who wanted nothing more to do with me. Mercy among men. And it got me thinking more. Mercy among humankind - stopping the hurt.
Recently there was the shooting in Parkland Florida, at the Marjory Douglas HS. I've been thinking a lot about the mass killings for the past few years, and why. What is different now than back in the 60's when I was in high school? Then realized, countries have been committed genocide and there was Hitler, the Holocaust, and the KKK and the world seems to seeth with hate, prejudice, domination and greed.
I thought of the missing person cases I'd helped with, written about on my blog, Brianna Maitland and Maura Murray. The thought that comes to my mind is we lack the ability to show mercy, as not doing the above mentioned heinous acts shows mercy. Easy for me to say as I feel I lack the gene, if it is a gene that causes such lack of respect for others, and a show of mercy.
I strongly believe we need to learn not to be naive, or overnight start trusting strangers or stop what we're doing to make the planet safer to live in. But I think perhaps sometimes all it takes is a gift teddy bear. Listening to others and having empathy. If only someone pent on destruction or mayhem would instead buy a teddy bear and give it to whoever is in charge, and admit, I want to hurt you, but I'm giving you this teddy bear as an example of mercy among men.
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