The Old Man

On a quiet Sunday morning one week ago, an old man jumped to his death at the block where I stayed. Hardly a tear was shed by his kin when the police interviewed them at the void deck, and no funeral was conducted for him. A short chant and some bell-ringing by a Taoist priest was all we heard at the spot where he landed.

A life that spanned several decades finished off with nothing; even the newspaper and media decided this is not newsworthy enough to mention. I do not know the old man; neither have I met him before. However, he must have been traumatized by something to cause him to end his life this way. Even if the old man had been difficult to live with, even if he had hurt his family members in the past, even if he had been unreasonable or ill, he was a human life after all, worth more than the grass of the field or the sparrows. Must he see death as the only way out for him?

We will never know why the old man chose death, but there are others who are also living in despair, living in various stage of emotional abandonment and neglect, living with nary a drop of hope. I believe the answer lies in God's love. God's love is powerful enough to help us love the unlovable, forgive those who have hurt us (just as we ourselves have been forgiven by God despite our iniquities and transgressions), and to give love and hope to others to live on, despite their struggles.

The world is terrible enough; if we cannot bring ourselves to help another person, whether that person is our father, mother, relative, child, or friend, if we cannot be the good Samaritan to the guy who was robbed and left to die, we are no different from the terrorists who make headlines killing hostages; we are emotional terrorists.

Category: Sounding Board, cf_