On Suicide – Sunday, June 02, 1985
It is difficult to talk of suicide since it is such a personal act, yet one which affects many others. We also speak without experience, yet some have called it cowardice, insanity, and failure.
Most likely and most often it is none of these—but child of fear and sibling to despair. Fear and despair, two terms who marry and, from their illicit union, produce the progeny whose name is suicide.
Now, more than ever, self-murder has become the final answer to these emotions. Even youngsters, who appear to have the most to live for, file suit against themselves and act as judge, jury, and executioner.
Society, itself, must shoulder part of the blame for this present-day epidemic. For the prevalence of suicide is not only an indication of individual apprehension but also of collective doubt—a sign that our social psyche and nervous system is wound too tight. We live in a world where stability and security, the antonyms of fear, are traded away daily for a host of lesser gains—for money, affluence, governmental efficiency, and social expediency. The threat of nuclear annihilation has also cast its darkened shadow across the uplifted faces of mankind.
We search for individual stability which results from knowing that we belong to a humane, caring, and secure community. But it is not always there.
And our modern home life does not always provide sufficient stability and warmth to combat fear and despair. We move too often, tearing children from their moorings of home and at school. Frequently, we leave youngsters unattended or to the care of institutions, adding further to their feelings of insecurity and unimportance. The rise of child abuse has added to the dilemma. And divorce, which splits and perplexes family members, drains needed emotional reserves.
Taken individually, we can deal, though it’s hard, with anyone of these difficulties. But, in concert, they may spell psychological and emotional disaster.
Could it be that the solution to this perplexing problem is simpler than we realize? The therapeutic and healing value of love should not be underestimated—simple, authentic, unembarrassed, unconditional love, exchanged daily between parents and children, among family members and friends, among communities and nations. Such expressions of love would do more to erase the causes of suicide than any other factor.
We all have feelings of despair; we are all frightened at one time or another. Whether these become victors or the vanquished, often depends on love.
June 02, 1985
Broadcast Number 2,911