Newton
Painting: “Red on Maroon” by Mark Rothko (from www.artchive.com)
I saw a dead body by the sidewalk. I was in a cab on the corner of Ayala and Makati Avenues, waiting for the light to change. The cabbie was listening to the radio broadcast of the Senate hearing on the euro-happy police visiting Russia. Suddenly a reporter interrupted the broadcast to say that a woman had jumped from the 15th floor of the PLDT Building and landed on the driveway.
The light turned green and the cab crossed Ayala, only to be caught in a jam. As the cab crawled along Makati Avenue I saw her. She was lying face-down on the concrete, surrounded by police and gawkers. I got to thinking, Did she fall or was she pushed? Why’d she do it? If a mass of about 60 kg falls from a height of about 40 m at 9.8 m/s/s, what is the impact? What is the splatter pattern? Did she mean to do at lunchtime when everyone would see? Given the temperature and humidity, how long before. . .Was this truly her choice? Did her life pass before her eyes? How many lives in how many parallel universes will be altered because of this one death?
When I left the area three hours later the crowd was still there, so presumably the body had not been taken away. I hope someone put a blanket over her.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
October 24th, 2008 at 11:08
I hear you, Jessica.
Yes, I hope they put a blanket over her, too.
Dull ache in my chest I feel. A year now I haven’t smoked, so smoke I cannot.
Coffee. I need one.
October 24th, 2008 at 11:23
If you jump from the 50th floor a building intending to kill yourself, and on the way down, say on the 35th floor you changed your mind and think “No this is a mistake I dont want to die”, is it still a suicide?
October 24th, 2008 at 11:32
Even when I was in undergrad (which was in the mid 90s), Vargas has always had their lights switched off or dimmed. I thought it was all part of the atmosphere =)
October 24th, 2008 at 15:45
tara jedi kape. sigh.
October 25th, 2008 at 01:02
maybe she found her reason. a lot of people contemplate suicide but they couldn’t put themselves through it because they don’t have the perfect reason. Kind of like the character Gotonda in Haruki Murakami’s “Dance Dance Dance”. ofcourse, some are just our garden variety schizos. i personally have the golden gate bridge as my planned spot. still waiting for the perfect reason though.
October 25th, 2008 at 05:51
>> If you jump from the 50th floor a building intending to kill yourself, and on the way down, say on the 35th floor you changed your mind
Cold mathematical logic says that’s still 70% suicide, the rest of it is irresoluteness doomed by unforgiving gravity.
If this were a movie, a blanket would have been a nice poetic touch but Third World reality dictates that some security guard’s half-read Tempo would have sufficed.
October 25th, 2008 at 18:06
Saw the news on TFC. What?! You saw it? (Shivers) Did you like see it because you choose to see it or, were you left with no choice at all but to see it?
The last time I actually took the courage to look at a dead person was when I was a preschooler. Swear. (Shivers) I know I know I have issues with dying. Or living. Whichever comes first.
Then again, if speed equals distance over time, and time, reality divided by space raised to the power of speed, a falling mass would have no time to take note of anything else – life or a reconsideration thereof – flashing or swooshing past it, I think. There’s just hair and wind stinging the eyes to worry about instead.
Up until now though I am still figuring out how to make <my own take the most painless and artful of all harakiris.
October 27th, 2008 at 10:00
If you climbed to the top of building intending to kill yourself, and on the way to the edge, you stepped on some fresh bird poo, fell, hit your head on the concrete, became unconscious, and rolled over to the edge — the building is, say, the Citibank building in NY with its sloped roof — and you fell to your death, is it still a suicide?
October 28th, 2008 at 00:00
“If you climbed to the top of building intending to kill yourself, and on the way to the edge, you stepped on some fresh bird poo, fell, hit your head on the concrete, became unconscious, and rolled over to the edge — the building is, say, the Citibank building in NY with its sloped roof — and you fell to your death, is it still a suicide?”
– Nah… i think that would just count as dumb luck of the Bad Luck Schleprock variety…
October 28th, 2008 at 01:19
are we in a contest of “is it still” and whatnots?
here’s one unrelated to suicide… if a man speaks in a forest and nobody hears him, is he still wrong? (borrowed from Christopher Hitchens).