i just walked by the jewelry store where a murder and robbery was committed earlier this week. it's a very unusual occurrence in this neighborhood. it took place at 12:20 - right in the middle of the day - when 3 guys must have been bustling with parents and children eating lunch. hewitt is right down the block and the girls were probably in the middle of their lunch too. hotel guests at the carlyle may have been standing outside waiting for a car or just starting a walk down madison. visitors to the whitney may have even seen the murderer enter or leave the shop.
a man entered the store and asked the two shopkeepers to fill his canvas bags with jewelry. the older of the two said no. it's only jewelry. the robber then pulled out a gun and asked if they thought he was kidding. he wasn't. he shot the older shopkeeper and filled his bags with jewelry. he then left the store, went across madison to 75th street and then down and across 73rd street. a man with a gun who had just shot someone was walking by a museum, a school and many people on the street.
the shopkeeper was taken to lenox hill hospital where he died. for jewelry. there are "wanted" signs all over the neighborhood with a police sketch of the man. he's wearing a hat, glasses and a scarf around his face. not too likely he'll be found because of this sketch...hopefully when he tries to sell the jewelry valued at a few million dollars.
this unfortunate event has given me another opportunity to talk with zach about what we value and what to do if you're confronted by a mugger. stay calm, hand over whatever they ask for and help your friends. i can't imagine being in that moment. i'd like to think i wouldn't care about a watch or a wallet.
wwcd: things are replaceable, people we love aren't
wwcd: things are replaceable, people we love aren't
scanning that moment i see everything change in the instant. choices, decisions, lives, neighborhoods, meanings. sometimes "ego" dictates not giving in - or giving up. our attachments are powerful. both men were trying to control events. in essence they both did. one lost his blood-life, the other his peace-life. never again will the criminal live without fear and defensiveness. never again will the jeweler see the jewels he so treasured (in which he had probably invested his working life, if not his family's fortunes ...) or his family. his dilemma is over. the murderer's is not.
ReplyDeletei'm glad you talked with zach about choosing to let go of things. in the moment, the ego bristles, adrenaline rushes, defensiveness and an urge to gain control rise quickly; to defend one's sense of self gets confused with the object, or even just with the idea of being inviolable. (rape victims rememeber that terrible moment, when the sense of being able to live within and protect one's self is overruled.)
perhaps the jeweler would rather have died in the struggle than give up what he envisioned was mastery of his own life without protest. (i think of the jews in eastern europe who stood their ground...)
i hope your conversation will help zach sort this out faster if he is ever confronted with it.