Note: This is a true story I experienced last Friday. I do not tell it for self aggrandizement but regarding the happenings last Friday in Nice and the blatant violence unfolding in Turkey I find a story of a little hero needs to be told. This to encourage the people to search for righteous means of conflict resolution where we give space and respect to each other. I call this the method of skillful means.
Just sitting in the S-Bahn when some group of young enters. From their noise one sentence strikes my consciousness:
"Shit, the scum just attacked us with a knife!!!"
The kidz stand their ground at the door of the train able to speak out the harsh truth. I ask myself if there is really someone intimidating them with a knife and decide to sacrifice myself to eventually help the young. So I stand up and step out of the train to check. Indeed in 10 meter distance there is a fat white pig in a red dress holding a knife!
Without a conscious thought but by intuition I start looking deep into the eyes of the guy and lift my plain hand. The eyes of the guy show a fear response, they get wide and start to flicker, his knife holding arm freezes. Next I do is to lead my hand down slowly to make him understand he should calm down. My lowered hand relaxes the guy and he starts to move his knife again in an attempt to intimidate me. I don't let myself being distracted and I continue looking him deep in the eyes shacking my head just a little one can barely notice. The anger runs up my face, my eyelids begin to tremble. The guy recognizes my facial expression - probably from his past - and he freezes again. This convinces me he is no threat to us as the youngsters realized all along. They felt sure to provoke him and are still about it. However, I fear ongoing verbal offense might trigger a fight reflex. I step back in the train making the young understand to get in the train and calm down. A last remaining young continues to insult the white pig just in front of the train door. From within the train I put my hand on his shoulder, but I do not pull him in. The group of young inside the train encourages him to continue with his insults. They try to escape my influence by supporting the guy in their second language of Slavic roots. I can perfectly understand their words due to my Sorbian background. So I tell the guy in my mother tongue with a determined voice:
"Get in the train!"
By that the revolt of the group is broken, they can not ridicule me, I'm able to understand. Under this impression the remaining young steps in. The leader of the group turns to me saying I should not worry, they would definitely kill the pig if he would attack. I nod to express my agreement, I too would kick him really hard. But I do not enter the dialog. Instead I turn back to the guy who was the last one to enter:
"If he attacks you loose, not he!"
The other kidz agree realizing they were just about to do a terrible mistake. I express my respect for their maturity and finally they all start to sit down. The situation is resolved with the shutting of the door, the train leaves the stop. Once more I get up to talk to the kidz speaking with a loud and angry voice such that everyone in the train can hear it :
"Do you know what pisses me off the most about this situation? That the elder remain comfy seated and don't do anything to help you. Everyone sees it but gives a shit."
The young acknowledge my courage, only a group of elder joins in a wild discussion inventing cheap excuses. I ignore the elder and sit down in a deeply relaxed mood to continue my journey.
