This too shall pass …

image: savatra.blogSpot.com

As I read about the suicide of yet another person in the news, my heart broke especially as this person was someone I admired so much. What a waste!

I am one for introspection and in many of my journeys to self, I have sometimes wondered about suicide - the ‘what, why and how’ of it. Growing up in a third world country in a time without internet or a lot of foreign TV, I didn’t know anything about it except what I heard in church sometimes. In my religion, it was considered a sin to take one’s life though then, I used to wonder why. As long as the person took their own life, what did it matter to anyone else? Our lives are our personal business, was it not?

But in my older years now, I have come to differ with my younger self. Our lives may be our own but we owed many facets of it to the people around us – the people we love, the people who love us and even those we do not know but have the power to influence. In this digital age, every action we take has an impact that reaches far beyond our immediate community. The term ‘global village’ is really what it is – a literal description of the world we live in where someone coughs in one continent and halfway across the world, another catches a cold.  

 

Unlike in times past, we now hear more and more of people committing suicide over problems which are so temporary – loss of a loved one, depression, hopelessness, helplessness, etc. It is alarming because it can give the false impression to some that suicide is an acceptable way out and we all know it is not. In fact, I believe that suicide is the cowardly way to end whatever life challenge one is facing for it takes serious courage to stick the bad times out. Imagine a world where people copped out of their many struggles by killing themselves - that would be a world without the inspirational and colorful stories of people who triumph against all odds. It would be a drab world indeed!   

I have tried to but for now, I'm still yet to fully understand why anyone would end their lives knowing how much pain, anguish and guilt it would bring to those who love them; knowing that for all time, their families would wonder what they had missed, what they had failed to do, what they could have done better, how they might have prevented it. Why would anyone kill themselves knowing there are impressionable minds that might read their stories and think suicide an option to their life’s challenges? Besides, what is that problem that is completely beyond solutions and even if such a problem exists, can it possibly last forever? I don’t think so. So, why not wait it out, assuming you can’t successfully deal with it, because it shall surely pass. Or what about the very real fact that your life is not one you created? You exist by a divine will and this makes it not your prerogative to end that which you did not bring into being.

Suicide is not and will never be a viable option for whatever issues are plaguing your life at any moment. Be reasonable and avoid making decisions that will ultimately lead to more problems for those left behind. Your life may be your own but every other person in your life has a stake in it and this makes them entitled to your natural presence for a very long time. Besides, whatever it is, no matter how bad it is, remember that saying ‘this too shall pass.’ It shall surely pass one day because like everything in life and even life itself, it is temporary. This is my opinion!