Ethics

Who would you save, the old woman or the Rembrant painting? In my case I would just pull the fire alarm and let the sprinklers put the fire out. That is what we are taught growing up, so why would it change if we are in a museum. Yes, the paintings and art will probably get wet and ruined, bet not all of them would be destroyed, which would be the case if we just let the fire get them. And isn't there any security in this museum? Why are they not helping? Maybe there is a burglary going on somewhere else in the museum, and the fire is a distraction.

I got off-topic. Ethics, written by Linda Pastan, is a very unusual poem about an old woman sitting in a museum looking at a Rembrant painting, while reminiscing about her childhood, and why her being there seems so ironic. The fact the she said that the painting, herself, and the season are all beyond the saving of children shows that she is near death anyway, and that all things must come to an end at some point and we are just postponing the inevitable. Children probably don't understand this concept and live more in the moment. Maybe that is why Jesus told us to be like the little children, an live to affect what we can now, instead of dwelling on the future.