Tuesday, November 20, 2007
The Chinese Take Out
Last Friday afternoon, a man being transported to a mental health facility freaked out in the back of an ambulance on Interstate 78, threatening an attendent with a pair of scissors. When the driver pulled over on the shoulder, the deranged man jumped out of the ambulance, leaped over the highway guardrail, & ran toward downtown Springfield NJ. He was wearing a hospital gown - presumably the common style that never quite covers your ass. He ran through the back door of a Chinese restaurant, into the kitchen. Most employees & patrons quickly beat it out the front door, a couple of cooks cowered in the dining area. But the crazy guy wasn't holding them hostage. Maybe he didn't even notice them. Apparently, he just wouldn't go to the hospital, through the door that locks from both sides. So he grabbed a big knife & held the Springfriend police, a SWAT team, & the County Mobile Emergency Communications Unit at bay for a few hours. Until they got tired of hanging around & trying to reason with an unreasonable man who was causing serious rush hour traffic tieups. FInally, they tossed in a flash grenade, barged into the place & tackled the guy.
I have no idea what was wrong with him, & I'm not approving his violent method of escape. But it's no stretch to feel sympathy toward someone so upset, so frightened, so confused, that he actually did in real life what nearly all of us have done in our dreams: Gone out in public naked or nearly naked, in a place where such lack of clothing is inappropriate & unexpected. I still remember one of those dreams, must have had it when I was 12 or 13, I was riding a bicycle on a busy street in my hometown, a community where "everybody knows your name" as the Cheers theme goes, & realized I was wearing only white cotton briefs. That probably wouldn't raise an eyebrow in Finland in July, but it was humiliating for a shy boy in Jersey passing through puberty. The dream was so traumatic that I can recount it now as if it had actually occurred in reality. So when & if the unfortunate man in the news the other day gets his wits back, I hope he doesn't remember anything about the incident. Or he might need additional therapy.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
I have no idea what was wrong with him, & I'm not approving his violent method of escape. But it's no stretch to feel sympathy toward someone so upset, so frightened, so confused, that he actually did in real life what nearly all of us have done in our dreams: Gone out in public naked or nearly naked, in a place where such lack of clothing is inappropriate & unexpected. I still remember one of those dreams, must have had it when I was 12 or 13, I was riding a bicycle on a busy street in my hometown, a community where "everybody knows your name" as the Cheers theme goes, & realized I was wearing only white cotton briefs. That probably wouldn't raise an eyebrow in Finland in July, but it was humiliating for a shy boy in Jersey passing through puberty. The dream was so traumatic that I can recount it now as if it had actually occurred in reality. So when & if the unfortunate man in the news the other day gets his wits back, I hope he doesn't remember anything about the incident. Or he might need additional therapy.
Labels: dreams, mental health
