What Would YOU Do?

1.

You're sitting in a cafe having a lovely cup of coffee or tea. As you gaze out the window you can see a lady with her three year old daughter. Shortly after you start watching another woman comes up to the first one and they start to chat.

You're not really paying much attention as it's a pretty normal scenario.

But then the child starts to wander away from it's mother. As most children do, she's bored and is trying to find something more entertaining. The little girl sees a brightly coloured piece of paper on the road. She starts to walk towards the busy street. You're sitting upstairs in the cafe and are too far away to yell or run out and help. All you can do is helplessly watch.

Luckily, the mother notices her daughter and dashes after her. She grabs her forcefully by the arm, and in her shock, violently shakes her wee daughter. You can see she's loudly yelling at her daughter and you presume that she's telling her not to do that "Ever again!"

Due to her state of panic the mother isn't aware of just how violently she's shaking her daughter. You've read reports how this can cause brain damage, let alone a huge amount of distress for the poor child.

2.

You've had a fantastic night out with friends. After a lovely meal at a restaurant you all went to a night club and had a good boogie. On your way home you see two men on the same side of the street as you.

As you walk closer to them you can see they are having an argument. Very quickly the argument escalates.

They both appear to have had a few alcoholic drinks. Much like yourself. Whereas your drinks put you in a cheerful mood, their drinking only managed to add fuel to their fire.

When you have almost reached them a fight breaks out. They are throwing punches and end up rolling on the ground. Whilst it doesn’t appear that any of the punches are landing with much success, you can still see that they are getting badly hurt.

3.

One day you are out enjoying the weather. It’s one of those perfect days where the sun is shining brightly and yet there’s a cool crisp feeling to the air. It reminds you of when you were younger and able to go skiing in winter. That fresh smell of mountain air and warmth of the strong sun on your face.

As you exit the forest you’re walking in you come to a clearing. In the clearing are some lunch tables and groups of families sitting at the tables enjoying their meals.

You’re tranquility is broken by the sound of a high pitched yelp from a dog off to your left. Upon turning around you can see that a man is kicking his dog. It’s clearly his dog, because it’s tied up to one of the seats next to the family.

The man seems angry about something, but you can’t identify what is upsetting him.

Nevertheless he continues to brutally attack the dog.

 ➜ What do you do?

In the book I'm currently reading, by Paulo yet again - The Devil & Miss Prym, the author suggests that the cowardly and easy alternative is to do nothing.

I'd love to think that in each scenario I'd intervene. But the reality is somewhat different.

My order of angst would be 1/3 and then 2. As to which of 1 and 3 I would place first I'd probably put 3 first if I was to be honest with myself.

When I look at why it's on the basis of the victims' ability to save themselves. 

I can, on occasion become a legendary warrior when it comes to fighting for someone other than myself.

And yet... I confess that this only applies to being a verbal defender. If it comes to "fisty-cuffs" I'll be the first to run.

 ➜ What would you do?