Weighing in on the most current event: the recent suicide of a beloved actor. I know and understand that everyone is entitled to his or her opinion. We all have different frames of reference, and different experiences. Heres mine. Some people believe its selfish to off yourself and effectively flip your loved ones the bird as you float off into the ether. Yall think its selfish, but none of yall knew how long a depressed person bore his or her burden. You may see it from the perspective of a person who was touched by depression, and perhaps even the suicide of a loved one, but I can tell you from the perspective of a person who has battled it all her life. When the only thing one can conclude is that ones family and loved ones would be better off without you, and when the weight of depression becomes too much to bear, and your thoughts are irrational and you cannot find a solution, then suicide becomes the obvious solution, and the one that would most expediously relieve the torment and the burden you perceive yourself to be on those closest to you. Selfish? Maybe. But its also selfish to expect a person who is not in his or her right mind to consider your emotional well-being, when they cant even bear the weight of their own. Suicide is sinful, and it ought never to be glorified and sensationalized. But as Christians, we also need to be able to put our feelings aside and show compassion and empathy towards those who are stricken with suicidal ideations, instead of compounding their already unbearable burden with guilt, insisting that they ought to think of everyone else. For pitys sake, we dont know that he wasnt, in his own broken mind, thinking of them by relieving them of himself. My recommendation: lets be available. Lets be loving. Lets understand that what suicidal people need most is to know that they are needed, wanted, loved, valuable, and until theyre able to, that you will help them bear the burden. Sometimes thats not enough, and sometimes the suicidal person will give you no clue that they are afflicted. Sometimes theres precious little we can do, and if they succeed in the suicide, we will feel anger and despair, and even more so than if the death had been by some conventional means. But maybe itll help us, at least, to understand that death by ones own hand is not very different than death by disease.
Posted on: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 18:31:15 +0000