Tackle

I've been thinking about the word tackle lately.  Not the fishing tackle or trying hard to deal with a problem.  I've been thinking about the tackle where you physically stop someone from running by grabbing their body and forcing them down.  At my age, I do believe I am past the tackling stage of life. Just like back flips I'm past the age for tackling. For sure I'm beyond tackling anyone my size or larger.  I could still tackle a toddler I think.  Grabbing children from running in the street doesn't really qualify as tackling is my mind.  In fact, in reviewing all the years I've lived on this planet, I can only remember one incident where I tackled another adult.  When I was about 26 years old I was working at an institution on the east side of Saint Paul.  This was an honest to God institution where 150 men with mental disabilities lived.  My job was helping the men get through their day.  One gentle guy was about my age.  He was pleasant and he loved the Doobie Brothers.  So did I.  He loved them more than I did.  He would listen to the song "It Keeps You Running" over and over and over again.  While he listened to the refrain he would jog in place and the look on his face made me think he was in a state of ecstasy.  He was a really cool guy.  One day I came into his room and he wasn't listening to the Doobie Brothers.  He looked upset. He had broken his bedroom window. He held a piece of broken window glass in his hand.  He moved his hand toward his wrist.  He was about to cut himself on purpose.  I walked into the room and saw this.  Here is a crisis!  So what did I do?  I tackled him.  I leaped at him and we both landed on his bed.  No doubt he was very surprised.  I grabbed the hand that held the glass and he dropped the broken glass.  Later my supervisor asked me, "Did you think about safety before you acted?"  I did not.  I acted without thinking.  She didn't admonish me or praise me.  She just explained that this poor fellow had a strange family dynamic going where his relatives only visited him after suicide attempts.  His family ignores him on his birthday, ignores him on all holidays, but comes to visit him after suicide attempts.  To this day I think of him whenever I hear "It Keeps You Running."