A person is pulling drowning kids out of a turbulent stream; they’re exhausted, struggling for breath themselves, but they keep diving back in to haul more kids out, because what else does one do? They spot another person coming, running toward them, and their heart leaps, they think that finally they have help, finally they’re not alone in their struggle, but the second person just keeps running by, barely pausing to look at what’s going on.
“You jerk!” shrieks the waterlogged rescuer, almost getting a lungful of water, unble to fathom that they’ve just been ignored. That all these drowning kids have been ignored. “How can you do this!?? Come back!” The expletives get worse, but fall on deaf ears.
The runner keeps going, because they know there’s a much bigger jerk a little further upstream who’s pushing the kids in.
