The world would be a better place.......

..........if people could just learn to let go.

My friends and I were making our way back to Glasgow from our trip to the Isle of Arran, last Saturday evening. We were alighting the ferry that was bringing us back from Arran to the mainland jetty, Ardrossan, where we were to catch a train back to the city centre. There were easily more than 100 passengers disembarking the ferry when all of a sudden, a man struck another with a bottle on his head! The bottle cracked in the most awful of sounds....both men, victim and culprit, were right beside my friends and I when the whole incident took place....I was dumbstruck, shell-shocked, momentarily traumatised, in utter disbelief of what had just happened...!

The attacker shouted some abuse right after bottling the man, accusing the victim of extreme injustice, which we later found out was the act of throwing chips at the attacker's nephew. It's tempting to say that the victim brought it upon himself for provoking the wrong person but no one deserves to be bottled deliberately on the head on such meager grounds. It's pathetic and absolutely distasteful, if you ask me.

...which leads me to the thought that life would be much easier (and safer!) if people learnt to let go of grudges and resentment, and simply learn to take a breather, forgive and forget. Correct me if I'm wrong but don't most crimes, arguments, fallouts stem from the inability of people to make peace with their loss and to refuse revenge and retaliation. Most of the time, the outcome is never worth the fight in the first place.

The attacker's group soon left the scene, no doubt thinking he was the king of all kings. On the contrary, the friend of the bleeding man started harrassing the public by pacing up and down the train terminal shouting, 'Who dares bottle my friend? Why not take on me instead?'. Clearly, he wanted his piece of revenge and was willing to let it out on anyone, whether or not he was involved in the first place.

Thank God, the train came soon after. We were more than glad to leave the site.