October 19, 2005--Cold Turkey

Do you recall the story from eleven months ago about a teenager who threw a 20-pound frozen turkey onto the Long Island Expressway from an overpass and how it almost killed Victoria Ruvolo when the turkey crashed through the windshield of her car? Though it was a terrible and tragic story, I must confess that I joined in the laughter evoked by the anti-Thanksgiving jokes about it that were told by Jay Leno and others. A frozen turkey! Really, very funny.

So much humor is about just such sad and tragic things. We even make jokes about the Second World War and the Nazis—Hogan’s Heroes and The Producers are just two examples. Laughter helps get us through the day. Especially dark days.

But then this story about the frozen turkey took a sudden, very different turn. Earlier this week, as reported in the NY Times (see full story linked below), Ryan Cushing, the teenager responsible received a very light, six-month sentence because the victim asked the judge to be lenient. This occurs occasionally when the victim of a crime is unusually compassionate and forgiving. In this case Ms. Ruvolo certainly was, in spite of the extent of the injuries to her head and face and the many, many months of coma, surgery, and rehabilitation. And the lingering effects and impairments.

At the sentencing hearing, Ryan Cushing acknowledged that her ability to forgive has had “a profound effect on me. It has already made a positive change in my life.” This had been on stark display last August when Ms. Ruvolo stroked Cushing’s head while he repeatedly apologized and sobbed.

She forgave him in spite of what he did and in spite of the fact that neither he nor the four other teens with him, to quote her, “had the guts or decency” to even call 911 to seek help for her as she lay near death, alone and untended.

This week, in court, she went on to say, “There is no room for vengeance in my life. . . . I stubbornly rejected the notion that you should be treated more harshly. I truly hope that by demonstrating compassion and leniency, I have encouraged you to seek an honorable life . . . . Ryan, prove me right.”

What if we could extrapolate into the larger world Victoria Ruvolo’s inspiring compassion and sense of forgiveness. To where it is so desperately needed. I try to keep track of the nature of human nature and opine here and elsewhere about its malevolent and predatory side and how that has gotten us and our planet into such a deplorable state. But this is the other side of our nature and does offer some hope. Thanks for that Victoria!