The Lights of Brooklyn:

Last night something awful happened...certainly the worst that has happened around here on 6th Ave in Brooklyn, and I've lived here mainly in this apartment for the last 4 years. I had just completed eating my delicious bowl of Kashi Oat Crunch, after having a delightful evening seeing the new Broadway musical THE DROWSY CHAPERONE...as the *crunch-crunch reverberated in my head and the warbling sounds of my Itunes on shuffle gently played, there came a bizarre sound from outside. The sound of a man howling. Being used to bizarre sounds in Brooklyn, I continued to eat my cereal and pitter on the computer. But it kept coming..over and over in succession. Finally, my curiosity got the best of me and I strained to see outside the kitchen window. On the apartment two buildings away, there was a man, no more than his early twenties, pacing and yelling on the roof. Extreme anger and pain was coming out of him. He then began throwing bricks or something down in the neighboring lawns. There was a woman's voice from below yelling, his mother from what I could hear, and they were arguing. "You never listen to me anyway maaaa"!!...he was either high or enraged or both. Was he going to kill himself I couldn't decipher? My best friend called and I asked him should I call the police? No sooner had this been said than, like a whirlwind, police cars were all around, and believe it or not, a helicopter floating above our apartment. Yes, a helicopter outside the window. Helicopters and cops and neighbors yelling, a proverbial Armageddon on 6th ave. It sounded like they shot something at him, (stun gun?) and I couldn't tell if he himself had a gun..and he became more erratic and paced, like a caged animal up there. I didn't stay in the window long out of fear a brick would go through ours, although not sure he could have thrown that far. The blaring light from the helicopter was beaming in our window like close encounters of the third kind and I didn't want to be a clear shot for him if indeed he did have a gun. So the neighbor-war continued, for about an hour, with me hiding in my room, a sort of tomb-like room that makes me feel like it would protect me from a nuclear holocaust. How did my roommate sleep through all this for gosh sake?

This was pretty scary. I have already been lamenting I need a vacation from New York...this may be a sign that a cruise or flight to Nashville is beyond necessary now. My friend DC says that love and peace brings up everything that is not like it...how do you bring peace and love to a situation where a madman is going to potentially kill himself or someone else by throwing himself off the building? They obviously found him a threat to society or else they wouldn't of flown a friggin helicopter to the sight. Is this the norm here? Man did I grow up in the sheltered suburbs of the Midwest.

Not sure what happened to the mystery roof man, because after an hour of this, like a sudden storm, all was silent outside...and I was left with my thoughts, anxiety and a sleepless night. The stress of life and pain causing someone to snap like this. Why does this feel so frightening? What stops any of us from snapping like this? And how much do I feel for this faceless man, atop the rooftop brewing over with pain...and him seeing no light at the end of the tunnel but the blare of a police helicopter lighting up the night sky in Brooklyn....