EVERYTHING CHANGED
Wednesday, September 1, 2021
I’ve had many thoughts about suicide in my life – not just the medically assisted kind, but the type that devastates those who are left behind.
Cowardly acts we want to help people avoid.
In my case, it was nearly 35 years ago during the most hellish throws of my drinking when taking my life appeared, for a short time, to be a better alternative.
It wasn’t.
I came to my senses.
Not everyone does.
We talk about it, write about it, speak about it – and though every person’s circumstance is different, everyone seems to agree on a few things. It’s about isolation, depression, problems you can’t talk about, truths you can’t tell or can’t admit. The best way to help is to hold out a hand, open an ear, watch for signs and reach out to help. Not those weak-kneed ‘if I can help, let me know’ platitudes, but digging in and getting close …
And then along came COVID.
In the last couple of years, we’ve all heard of – or had – difficult times and sometimes dark thoughts, the type that lay people low. Too many have taken their own way out.
Again, I’m so glad to have weathered the storms I’ve faced.
Yet too many of us are short some dear friends who are no longer with us, and their loss is a tragedy.
It doesn’t matter much how anyone departs because they are just as gone. Just as dead. But what they leave behind for those who are left behind isn’t the same.
As we get back to normal, thrive and get excited about new chapters in our revitalized lives, we can’t lose sight of the reality of too many who remain in jeopardy.
Nothing changed, and yet everything changed. More people have been taking their own lives, but there is no chorus of people saying “cowards!” because thinking has shifted, and the landscape of how we feel has been shifting too, beneath our feet.
Now, at least in our part of the world, it seems COVID has abated, life is returning to normal – people are getting back to their ‘normal’ lives.
So, what say you now?
Is suicide a cowardly act?
If yes, why?
If not, why not?
What changed?
Everything.