ethics novels
Red cars and corpuscles
Have you seen a double-sided poster of a lad sitting on a hospital bed? Chances are, if you travel by bus, you will have. Because it’s designed specifically for bus-shelters.
It’s behind plastic and I couldn’t get a very clear photo, so here’s the text:
How much longer? I’ve been waiting ages. Stuck here. Going nowhere. I’ve counted three hundred and sixty eight – nope, three hundred and sixty nine red cars go by. It can’t be that much longer. Can it? Three hundred and seventy. That’s the thing with waiting though. Time. Passes. Slower.
Come on. What’s taking so long? I look at my watch. Check my phone. No new messages. Send a text. Kill some time. Think of what I should be doing now instead of waiting. Think of where I should be instead of here. Three hundred and seventy one. With my pals. At school. Double Art. Not stuck waiting. Three hundred and seventy two. With nothing else to do but count cars going by my hospital window. A nurse pops her head round. Tells me hopefully it won’t be much longer. Will it? Because it all depends on you, you see. It’s you I’m waiting on.
GIVE BLOOD
And on the reverse side: Some people are waiting on more than a bus.
Clever marketing, eh? Makes you want to rush in and help that forlorn little figure in his pyjamas before number three hundred and seventy three comes along.
And it beautifully illustrates what I’ve been saying for years. Human interest stories capture the mind and heart, and are a powerful way of getting us to think afresh about important dilemmas.
A parable within a parable.
As for me, I’m a full time grandmother at the moment and the very thought of one of my own little pyjamaed people in that situation makes me shudder. I’m off to check they’re all still alive, well and happy. And reading very good books!!