Sylvie Soul Writing Podcast

Originally published on Medium on July 21, 2018 A co-worker at my office had to put her dog down last weekend. I felt bad for her, so I purchased a sympathy card and included a gift card to one of her favourite restaurants, thinking it would make her day. The Monday after she put her dog down, this same co-worker was physically assaulted by a deranged individual near our building. I felt appalled that someone could be randomly attacked so close to our work…but I also wondered if it was my fault she got assaulted. You have to leave our building to access the restaurant for which I had gotten the gift card. If she didn’t leave the building to use the gift card, would she have been alright? I now realize these thoughts are moot. The co-worker went the opposite direction, and had not opened the card prior to the incident. But how pathetic am I that the first thing I considered when she was subjected to bodily harm was how I may have been ultimately responsible? This is an inherent problem with the human race. S