What You Can Do When You Have To

[helwen]

He Was Magnificent: What You Can Do When You Have To is one of Sharon Astyk's best essays yet.

Comments

[rising-moon.livejournal.com]

And the gentleman in question's description of the event is characteristically modest.

I'm awestruck.

[helwen.livejournal.com]

Locked post. But I remember from Frugal_green that C is a friend of Sharon's.

[earthwomyn06.livejournal.com]

I read that today...she's great!

[helwen.livejournal.com]

Yup, an excellent dose of hope :)

[harpnfiddle.livejournal.com]

You do what you have to do. Any mother who has done the Heimlich maneuver on her kid, or had to bandage a horrendous injury when one of them is bleeding all over the place (scalp injuries - what can I say) knows about this. Not quite to this extent, but similar feelings. People who are ordinarily quite squeamish around blood, rise to the occasion when it is called for.

[helwen.livejournal.com]

Yes, thank goodness most folks can rise to the occasion. Although I also know people who freeze in emergency situations or go off half-cocked and are less than useful. This sounds like a family who'll do all right.

[harpnfiddle.livejournal.com]

Yeah - I did the Heimlich on both Ben (plum pit)and Jon (peppermint candy), and had to bandage Nate's scalp wound with old adhesive tape that wouldn't stick to his sweaty, bloody skin - finally used gauze to wrap around his head. Didn't he eat that up. He pretended to be a wounded Civil war soldier. I had then planned to get some butterfly bandages when we got back to shore (we were sailing on the Chesapeake) but it was healing ok on its own. He has a scar on his forehead of which he is very proud - hence the T-shirt I gave him a couple of years ago that said (in latin) something about pain is temporary, chicks dig scars.

[helwen.livejournal.com]

LOL You have good kids.