A few days ago, I put my foot in it with friends by trying to rationalise suicide. What I didn't know was that a day before, an acquaintance of one of the friends had taken his life! I was ashen with embarrassment.
Life is an emotive and emotional subject. In the days ahead, I may argue on whether life begins at conception or at birth but the question today must be when life ends. Is hanging to life, even when the odds are stacked heavily against one worth it? Is there a point at which one can conclude that having fought like a warrior, it is time to fall on his/her sword? Experts of the mind have concluded that nobody wakes up wanting to be dead! Death isn't the first option even to the weakest of people. Without psychoanalysing the issue, can life be so bad and hopeless that suicide becomes the logical step?
For the victims' loved ones, a feeling of guilt and a perception of blame for not doing enough is often guaranteed. Should loved ones take some blame for the victim's sense of hopelessness and ultimate death?
I love life enough to hang on to it even by the thinnest of threads and yet I can't get to admit to myself how thin breaking point can get. It is logical therefore to admit that at some stage in my life, the possibility of killing myself is conceivable. At a personal level for instance, picking “food” from the litter bin to keep going could be an untenable cost to keep going. Some people's threshold maybe a lot higher but in following that line of thought, it still leads to the question of whether it is justifiable to commit suicide.
In a country so violent with crime, one might also wonder if the respect for life should be more around humanity as whole or first and foremost to one's own. The murderous tyrants and criminals may value their survival above all else just as the suicidal rate theirs so poorly that ending it seems logical.
It would also be naive to assume that all suicides are a surprise to relatives and close friends. Unless a person is an Oscar winning actor or actress, the period before they end their lives must signal turmoil or turbulence that should alarm loved ones. Of course, it is impossible to determine how seriously a person has sunk. Any accusation of a loved one failing to predict the end result of unhappiness or depression is not only unfair but outright stupid.
Life is an emotive and emotional subject. In the days ahead, I may argue on whether life begins at conception or at birth but the question today must be when life ends. Is hanging to life, even when the odds are stacked heavily against one worth it? Is there a point at which one can conclude that having fought like a warrior, it is time to fall on his/her sword? Experts of the mind have concluded that nobody wakes up wanting to be dead! Death isn't the first option even to the weakest of people. Without psychoanalysing the issue, can life be so bad and hopeless that suicide becomes the logical step?
For the victims' loved ones, a feeling of guilt and a perception of blame for not doing enough is often guaranteed. Should loved ones take some blame for the victim's sense of hopelessness and ultimate death?
I love life enough to hang on to it even by the thinnest of threads and yet I can't get to admit to myself how thin breaking point can get. It is logical therefore to admit that at some stage in my life, the possibility of killing myself is conceivable. At a personal level for instance, picking “food” from the litter bin to keep going could be an untenable cost to keep going. Some people's threshold maybe a lot higher but in following that line of thought, it still leads to the question of whether it is justifiable to commit suicide.
In a country so violent with crime, one might also wonder if the respect for life should be more around humanity as whole or first and foremost to one's own. The murderous tyrants and criminals may value their survival above all else just as the suicidal rate theirs so poorly that ending it seems logical.
It would also be naive to assume that all suicides are a surprise to relatives and close friends. Unless a person is an Oscar winning actor or actress, the period before they end their lives must signal turmoil or turbulence that should alarm loved ones. Of course, it is impossible to determine how seriously a person has sunk. Any accusation of a loved one failing to predict the end result of unhappiness or depression is not only unfair but outright stupid.
No comments:
Post a Comment