I have learned that I cannot dispose of other people's facts; but I possess such a key to my own, as persuades me against all their denials, that they also have a key to theirs. A sympathetic person is placed in the dilemma of a swimmer among drowning men, who all catch at him, and if he give so much as a leg or a finger, they will drown him.
From Experience, Essays, Second Series by Ralph Waldo Emerson
How do you save someone who is drowning in the results of prior acts? If you are a witness to whatever folly, can you save this person?
For myself, as taken from my own experience, you can't save that person. You can offer advice, offer reasonable assistance, but it is up to the individual to reverse engineer the actions that brought the result if that person is interested in never experiencing that problem again.
I have found myself drowning in another's misery - several times. Often, I find that I don't have all the facts - the information I need to decide whether it is appropriate or necessary to get involved. The assistance may ultimately be taken as interference.
Often, the problem resolves itself.
They wish to be saved from the mischief of their own vices, but not from their vices.
If the problem is the result to much of this or that, folks often want a way to avoid giving up that thing that is overly indulged.
Charity would be wasted on this poor waiting on the symptoms. A wise and hardy physician will say, Come out of that, as the first condition of advice.
