~*~A series of Unfortunate Events~*~

esa · Post by **esa** » Wednesday Mar 16, 2005

Has anyone ever caused the almost impeding death of anyone? I mean...for real?
I just found out that something I did turned around and almost cost a man his life. I mean, I know it's not my fault or anything..but still...it whigged me out.

Friday, I was talking to two boys and the one got upset because the other boy was taking up more of my time than he was getting to... I then had to break the fight up. This fight caused two of the kids to get detentions. The one child skipped the Monday's scheduled detention. Thus, getting him two additional days plus the skipped one. The child decided he was not going to school and the father tried to make him. Child started argument...before you know it the kid had his razor and his father is holding onto his neck. So...long story short, the man was in icu and lucky his wife was home. He's going to live.

I know it's not my fault (the kid isn't from a very happy home...) but..still.. wow. It's.. scary sometimes. His brother whipped a pair of scissors at my head 2 months back...

So..anyone almost kill anyone indirectly? I feel all wierd and stuff about this.

Prrthd81702 · Post by **Prrthd81702** » Wednesday Mar 16, 2005

No, I've never personally experienced that, but I am a funeral director and I see things like that all the time. You had nothing to do with it, when you really think about it. Think about the situation without a hindsight bias, and you probably would have done the same thing again. Of course you feel terrible that it happened, but don't blame yourself. There was more going on in that kid's life than you could have ever known. Who knows, maybe the fight was just impending and it was just waiting on some incident. It doesn't make the situation any better feeling for anyone, but just know that it really didn't have anything to do with your actions. I just see too many people that get eaten up by grief when they are just looking for a reason and think that they are that reason. Sometimes things just happen, I mean look at all the terrible deaths that have been happening to good people just in this forum. Don't beat yourself up over someone else's actions.

ZappasXWife · Post by **ZappasXWife** » Wednesday Mar 16, 2005

OK, here's how I indirectly caused death: the boyfriend I had when I was in 9th grade died a few years ago of AIDS and he was gay. I think I turned him!

DMFJ03 · Post by **DMFJ03** » Wednesday Mar 16, 2005

::Tosses away a tissue::

I inadverntaly kill hundreds each day.

J Michaels · Post by **J Michaels** » Wednesday Mar 16, 2005

DMFJ03 wrote:::Tosses away a tissue::

I inadverntaly kill hundreds each day.

Post by **Jim Price** » Wednesday Mar 16, 2005

I think Esa's question goes hand in hand with another scenario. You can question whether something you did indirectly helped prevent a death from happening. On the other side, you can also question if you could have done something more to prevent a death that did occur.

You can drive yourself nuts thinking about either case. Anything we do - or don't do - in life can potentially impact somebody else's life. But hindsight is 20/20, and you can't reverse the past.

In my own case - last week marked the 7th anniversary of the death of a friend that I'm sure a number of Rockpagers will remember, "Johnstown Jen" Rowe. Jen used to frequently come over the mountain from Johnstown to check out bands and shows in Altoona. Often she was with a designated driver (her friend, Rhonda), but sometimes she wasn't. On her final night, she made a solo trip to see Korruption play at Pellegrine's. She had a fun time, but along the way had too much to drink, got behind the wheel, flipped her car on I-99 at a high rate of speed and died instantly. I know a number of people second-guessed themselves after that night, regretting that they didn't stop her heading out the door. A lady friend I was with that evening had asked me at the end of the night where Jen was, and commented that she looked like she needed someone to drive her home. But it was already too late at that point, Jen was already out the door. I remember one guy who was working Pelly's kitchen that night was beating himself up, saying that he tried to get Jen to stick around until somebody else could drive her home. Hindsight is 20/20, though, and what happened happened. We might have changed the ultimate outcome, we might not have.

Two weeks before that fateful night, though, I had run into Jen at the 4D's. She was by herself, and in no shape to drive home at the end of the night. I treated her to breakfast at King's after the show, to give her a chance to sober up before heading home. What would have happened had I not acted that night? Would a similar outcome have happened two weeks earlier? If somebody could have stopped her at Pelly's that night, would she still be alive now or would it had just postponed her accident until another night?

Again, you can drive yourself mad second-guessing what could have happened had you acted or not acted...

the herald · Post by **the herald** » Wednesday Mar 16, 2005

sounds like the movie i just watched the other day called..............

crap i cant remember...it was about the girl having a preminition about an accident and she stopped these people from dying but then one by one they died anyways......anyone remember the title?

bfoust · Post by **bfoust** » Thursday Mar 17, 2005

Final Destination and FD2

ZappasXWife · Post by **ZappasXWife** » Thursday Mar 17, 2005

Maybe I have seen too many movies along those lines, but I'm just thinking about those 2 weeks in between JP saw the girl and she died. Like maybe she impacted some other event in just those 2 weeks that caused/prevented something else to happen...and it goes on and on. The few movies that I liked that are along those lines were Vanilla Sky (you either hate or love that movie) and Sliding Doors.

Mo Lester · Post by **Mo Lester** » Thursday Mar 17, 2005

Jim Price wrote: In my own case - last week marked the 7th anniversary of the death of a friend that I'm sure a number of Rockpagers will remember, "Johnstown Jen" Rowe. ...

Yeah, Jimmy, I wasn't sure when that was. I was just looking at a picture of Jen and I that Rhonda gave me. I keep it up on the shelf in my studio to keep Jen in my thoughts. She was such a beautiful person.

bassist_25 · Post by **bassist_25** » Thursday Mar 17, 2005

http://library.thinkquest.org/3120/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_theory

http://www.imho.com/grae/chaos/chaos.html

http://order.ph.utexas.edu/chaos/

http://www.libraryreference.org/chaos.html

bfoust · Post by **bfoust** » Thursday Mar 17, 2005

That movie would be "The Butterfly Effect" with Ashton Kutcher. He goes back in time and changes his life to try and get it perfect, but he changes it for the worst each time.

bassist_25 · Post by **bassist_25** » Thursday Mar 17, 2005

Hmm, I never saw that movie. I do love That 70's Show though.

Post by **Ron** » Thursday Mar 17, 2005

I first read this as a kid. Here is a link to Ray Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder" from 1952. Some say Lorenz' chaos theories were inspired by it.
Another example of life imitating art.

A Sound of Thunder

ROCKPAGE

~~A series of Unfortunate Events~~

~~A series of Unfortunate Events~~