SUICIDE

Today, I am fulfilling one of the items on my chore list which is to read at least one magazine every day until I make a dent or reach the bottom of my magazine pile. Today I am reading HARPERS August 2022 issue, an article entitled THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY: Can Suicide be predicted, by Will Stephenson. It should be no surprise to anyone who has been reading the newspapers or magazines that suicide has become a big problem not only in America but in the whole world. It is the second leading cause of death of young people ages 15 to 24, the ages when humans should be at their most vital and exuberant, their reproductive years! It is the 4th leading cause of death in people ages 18 to 65. They didn't give a statistic for my age which is 76. But I would guess that suicide declines at my age because death by disease beats us to it.

Suicide is very interesting to me because we have so much of it in our family, on both the paternal and maternal sides. Just to give two examples, My mother's maternal grandfather, William Collins Garwood shot himself. We know from oral history that he had a drinking problem which haas passed down through the generations of both sides of my family to my siblings but has somehow missed me, although part of that is choice as I chose at an early age to avoide consumption of any alcoholic beverages just as I chose to avoid putting any money into the lottery because among our addictions we have gambling addiction, also on both sides of the family. On my father's side, his maternal aunt, the twin of my grandmother Mabel Wright, whose name was Ella, hanged herself in the 1960's in the attic stairwell of Grandmom Mabel's house in Ocean City. The oral history has it that she had been mugged at her home in Indiana, and had fallen during the crime and hit her head which left her with dementia, depression, paranoia and eventually suicide. My grandmother and her brother, Joseph, known as Yock, had driven to Indiana to rescue her and brought her back to their home in Ocean City, but it was no use. Her paranoia and depression overtook her and she gave up her life.

Nearly everyone I have know has either had suicidal thoughts, attempted suicde at some point in their lives, or dated or known people who have one of those options in their history. Personally, I really enjoy the simple basics of existence, the sun in the trees, the dance of the leaves, the cool breeze, the companionship of cats and a dog, the change in the seasons, the outdoors, simple foods - so many many items on my smorgasbord of happiness that I can't list them all, so I have not wished to end my life, although I have read some books on it to prepare for the future should I become incapacitated in some terrible way.

The article gives the history of the spotty and so far, ineffectual research into suicide via the fields of Psychology and Statistical data collection, and neuroscience. So far there has been little of scientific standard level to base anything on though various pioneers have paved paths through the juncle of mysteries. One of the most promising is in the field of data gathering by a company called Qntfy (an abbreviation of 'quantify') which seeks ro mine social media use, e-mails, texts, browsing history, streaming and media history, to find patterns that algorhythms can quantify to predict suicidal potential. in Pittsburgh, cognitive scientist Marcel Just is working on using a device to evaluate fMRI brain scans to see if they can find a connection to suicidal behavior. The phrase that struck me was "you can look at the brain scan and see what is wrong with the thought"

What I found most surprising, as did the author of the article, was how little is actually known about such a widespread phenomena. What is more unnatural than to willfully end ones own life when most of nature is compulsively directed towards preserving it. And yet there has been evidence that other creatures have committed suicide as well as humans, even dogs!

To me, it seems as though some of the most essential life strategies that a person can research, develop and apply, are in the realm of creating and maximizing thought and behavior patterns that maximize health, positive thought patterns and orderly life habits. Even this week at my religious gathering, the Woodbury Society of Friends Meeting, our early discussion group before Silent Worship, had turned our minds to comtemplating how best to cope with the despair that the losses of aging often bring. We are half younger people, 24 to 50, and half older people 65 to 76. Some of us older people are facing disability due to accidents and aging, one is no longer able to get around on her own and most have faced loss of spouses or loved ones. Just being together and talking about these issues is one of the most healthful and pratical methods of coping. We find we are not alone and we get tips from one another on how to open the dark curtain and find the light.

Perhaps that is the single most effective behavior in which we can engage to help us in regard to the main causes of the loss of the wish to live: despair and hopelessness. For myself, along with socializing and talking about these things, I have found reading to be a rich resource. There are many choices we can make and which turn into habits which in itself turns into character, that can help us to create the kinds of lives we wish to inhabit and not the kind that are so painful we want to leave. It has been at those times of my greatest despair that I have turned to friends both casual and religious and where I have found the lifeline to my own rescue.

"Throw out the lifeline, throw out the lifeline

Someone is drifting away

Throw out the lifeline, throw out the lifeline

someone is sinking today.

An old Salvation Army hymn.

A beautiful and heart stirring rendition by a youth choir and orchestra from the Eastward Missions in Australia is on YouTube, and I had to contemplate these young people are the age of the group with the highest threat of suicide. Presumably membership in an orchestra and singing group such as this one might be the medicine to save a young life.

Happy Trails and while you are on the happy trail, throw out the lifeline to someone not as lucky! = Jo Ann