Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Just my god-given right. My choice.
Here’s the way I look at suicide, folks. Virtually every suicide could have been prevented. With the right kind of intervention. With the right kind of treatment. The unfortunate thing is that we don’t always know what’s right. Not even the experts can agree. There are so many opinions. So many theories and concepts. But if we take a suicide, individually, and analyze it with the benefit of hindsight, we almost always can come up with a practical way it could have been prevented. Maybe some sort of intervention by friends or associates – in recognizing the signs of what was just about to happen. Or maybe it’s astute psychiatric treatment and counseling. Maybe it’s addressing issues of conflict in his/her life. Maybe it’s forcible commitment in a treatment facility. Oh, so many things. I could come up with 100 ways that my dad’s suicide could have been prevented. Even things I could have done as a 13-year-old youngster, when it happened. But hey, that was 58 years ago, and I’ve forgiven myself and my dad long, long ago. It happened. It can’t be undone. I’ve learned to live with the suicide as just another event in my life. And I even dare to give the suicide a good twist, a good spin. For my sake. For dad’s sake. Maybe dad did the right thing. For him. We all have to make our decisions. Sometimes, whether to live or die. Hard decisions. I guess I don’t consider it a sin to take one’s own life. Only if one takes another’s life. Yes, my dad made a choice. Not the choice I would have made. I’d encourage every suicidal person to try to find happiness – something that makes life worth living. I think it’s wonderful to be alive and fully conscious and able to enjoy and savor moment after moment after moment. If some day I can’t find happiness no matter how hard I try, and if I am in unbearable mental and physical pain – well, then I might reconsider. And if I did choose to take my own life, I wouldn’t consider it a sin. Just my god-given right. My choice. –Jim Broede
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7 comments:
Okay I'll bite. If you have gotten past your father's suicide waaaaaay back when then why does almost every entry go on and on about it? Just curious if you have noticed that.
Oh,and the other thing. I think everyone with an I.Q. over 50 has figured out that you spend you spare time running your clicker up higher and higher. Duh. I bet your clicker finger is raw from over use. LOL @ U.
Jim, I too am confused about why you have so many posts on suicide. You say you consider what your father did as being heroic. If that is true then why are you obessesed with this subject? All I can figure is that either you intend to follow in his foot steps or you are just doing this to hurt someone else.
There's a difference between fascination and curiosity and obsession, Lori. I'm fascinated and curious about lots of things. Life. Suicide. And why people commit it. I'm fascinated by the cosmos. And by god. And by philosophy. I'm fascinated by the game of baseball. I'm fascinated by nature. And the concept of unconditional love. I'm fascinated on what causes people and nations to go to war. I'm fascinated by my two cats, Lover Boy and Chenuska, and how they interact with each other. And I'm fascinated by Alzheimer's and how people deal and cope with it. And that's really how I got onto the subject of suicide. I'm fascinated by Deborah's take on her brother's suicide, and the fact that she initially brought it up on the message boards. And that's what prompted me to talk about my dad's suicide. And it prompted in January 2006 an exchange of interesting emails with Deborah. In which we shared our views, and in which Deborah took issue with my views, and by the way, misconstrued them to some extent, and still does. So that's how things got around to the topic of suicide. And several care-givers have talked about suicide during my 4 years or so on the message boards. Believe me, I'm not obsessed with the topic of suicide. But I find it interesting. I'm more obsessed with the Chicago Cubs at this time. Because they are in a close pennant race with the Milwaukee Brewers and the St. Louis Cardinals. And it would be a thrill for me if the Cubs got into the World Series this October. Then I would be truly obsessed with something. The World Series, and the possibility of the Cubs winning it all. I have so many interests, so many potential obsessions, I suppose. In politics. In religion. In social matters. In world affairs. I'm in love, you know. And love can be sort of an obsession. A rather positive obsession. That happens when one is a romantic idealist. And a free-thinker. And a liberal. And a lover. Oh, so much of life I love. I'd like to live forever...and that makes me wonder why folks choose to commit suicide. Why can't they fall in love with life? With being alive? Seems kind of strange to me. That's why I'm fascinated by the subject of suicide. Why don't people want to live, and to be happy and joyful? And just so very thrilled to be alive. To feel the pulse of life. There's no greater gift than the gift of life. Yet we have people rejecting it. Even my own dad. I suppose I have many of my dad's genes. And here I am, savoring life. The very thing that he rejected. Makes a guy wonder. --Jim Broede
As for the anonymous post at the top of this list, read what I wrote to Lori. And suicide isn't mentioned in just about every entry. Contrary to your claim. I think we've had over 60 entries so far. And maybe 5 have touched on suicide.
And by the way, when I log in here, the clicker doesn't count me. Because I want an accurate count, which excludes me. I love to watch the clicker though. Shows me people are tuning in the blog. Whether they like it or not. For those who wish the clicker didn't keep adding up to relatively big numbers, I'd suggest that you not come here. Find other pursuits. Other blogs. Other ways to spend your time. But you, dear anonymous, probably have an addiction. To this blog. To my thoughts. Don't you find my thoughts and me fascinating? In a sense, you compliment me every time you show up. How many times have you come here and been clicked? I cluck when I hear the clicks. It's very satisfying. --Jim Broede
P.S. I dare you to stay away, anonymous. You can't do it. You're hooked.
And by the way, when I log in here, the clicker doesn't count me. Because I want an accurate count, which excludes me
Any idiot knows you jim do not need to log in to "not" be counted.
If one wants to see this train wreck more than once, don't close the window. Just minimize it, then refresh when you look again. You will not affect the precious clicker.
I've been deleting some of my biographic material which some of you have picked up and pasted from my www.broede.org and www.broede.de web site. Doesn't make sense to duplicate this stuff. All you have to do is plug into either one of those addresses. Click on the American flag for the English version and on the German flag for the German language version. You'll learn more about how I traced my paternal ancestry, all the way back to the 1600s. It was a lot of fun and very enlightening. I found living relatives in Germany that I never knew I had. I've visited them in Germany, and some of them have come to America to visit me. --Jim Broede
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