Shakespeare on violent delights

These violent delights have violent ends
and in their triumph die,
like fire and powder, which,
as they kiss, consume.

--Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene VI

Soul sick

I had a close encounter with man's inhumanity toward man a little while ago, in the form of a skinny white high school senior who had been jumped by 4 big gangsta punks. We just missed the actual beating by a minute or two. I came across him while driving my son and a classmate home. (I drive the other child each afternoon because 2 years ago he had also been jumped walking home in the same area.)

We stopped and I tried to run interference between a teacher at the school who tried to contact the boy's parents, the police, and ambulance personnel.

The boy will probably be fine.

The blood he was spitting was probably from his mouth rather than from an internal injury.

My soul is sick.

I'm not sure who I hurt more for; the boy who was kicked and beaten, or the 4 boys who did it.