yellow and blue
What to say? There was another (apparent) suicide, this morning, along the Metra train line I use. This time it was in Palatine. It was not my train but two trains in front of us.
Seeing a person covered by a plastic sheet on TV is an abstraction. Seeing a plastic sheet half-on and half-off the railroad tracks 5 feet from you, as your train creeps by at a few miles per hour, is a blow to the stomach. The police mill around, waiting for the coroner. The railroad employees cluster together waiting to (I'm assuming) inspect the track and the train. No one is near the body or even really looking that way. The person is a Something that has Happened. They are alone along the tracks where they came to rest.
Today, the person was covered in blue plastic. The last time this happened, there was one person, but there were two separate pieces of yellow plastic along the rails. I say this not to disturb or disgust but to impart a sense of importance: When you are around trains, please be aware. While this person (appeared to) set out to kill himself, there are others that are left alone along the tracks covered in plastic because of stupidity, because of ignorance, and because of carelessness. Don't be any of those things. Be safe and be smart.