Getting off the elevator in the lobby, I heard one woman say to another,
“how do we help him?”
I couldn’t see who they were talking about and I kept walking in a purposeful-quiet-reserved-Seattleite way towards the door to unlock my bike, as if I had someplace to be, somewhere to go, something important to do. I didn’t really have anything to do, in fact I only went upstairs earlier to use one of my favorite men’s rooms (IBM Building), not to deliver any legal documents.
Outside I turned around and saw who they were trying to help. It was a sparrow that had flown into the building and couldn’t seem to find his way out. I’m not sure he was in such a hurry to get back outside and leave the air conditioned lobby, but these women wanted to help him back outside. So as they tried to coax him toward the doors I held them open. Soon three or four more people came along and got into it. This lasted a little while. It’s difficult to get a sparrow to fly through an eight foot doorway in the corner of a 30 foot high wall of glass in the lobby of an office building. I soon moved on, as did most of the office workers clutching their Styrofoam clam shell lunch containers. And I’m guessing the building staff was called in to work on it.
But for a few minutes it was a great sight to see. Six people on a sparrow round up, genuinely concerned for the little bird. I couldn’t help but think that people are more easily moved to helping an animal in distress than they would be to helping another person. Not thinking twice about assisting a little bird or a squirrel but giving a long thoughtful pause before assisting an old man with chest pains or a woman who tripped on the stairs.
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