"Give a man enough rope and he will hang himself" ~Proverb How often do you hear "you saved my life?"
Well, quite often, come to think of it. Any time you do a small favor for someone you're "a life-saver," or at least that's what our age of overstatement would have us believe.
Yesterday, I stopped a man from walking in front of an oncoming bus. He was completely absorbed in texting while waiting at the crosswalk and once he saw a car pass in his periphery, he must have figured he was good to go. I put my arm out to stop him and even then he took a couple more steps before I really stopped him. By this point, the bus was close enough that, had he continued walking, it would not have had time to break. When he told me "you saved my life," I couldn't help but feel like it wasn't as much of an exaggeration as it usually is.
I don't think it would have been possible for me to stand at that crosswalk and NOT stop him. I responded on a purely instinctual level, and that that particular instinct makes us act unwittingly to help other people is one of the better parts of our evolution.
That instinct is also why it is sometimes very hard for me to keep my mouth shut when I see people are doing things that are ultimately going to hurt them. There are a few people in my life right now that, for all I would actually like to see them fail, I have a hard time resisting the urge to warn about their behavior.
I use the quote above as my reminder that more often than not, people need to be given enough rope to do with as they will--unless they're walking in front of a bus.
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