RDP WEDNESDAY: RESIDUE
Photo A.M. Moscoso
There was a run of suicides on the tracks my train uses last month- there was at least one a week.
Some people suggested that the inconsiderate jerks who threw themselves under the train should have stayed home and ‘eaten a bullet’.
My question is- which child in the video was the person on the tracks and which was the unfeeling ‘ let then eat a bullet ” child?
At what point did those people become so emotionally detached from their own sense of humanity that they allowed themselves to be torn apart by a speeding train or would open their mouth and say without a care in the world for how it would say to a train car full of people that ‘ that SOB should have stayed home and eaten a bullet, sorry your life sucks but I have things to do- I have a life. “
I know the person who ended their life has my sympathy- should the people who suggested that the deceased should have ‘eaten a bullet’ for the sake of the convenience of those around them have it too?
And if if I deny either of them my sympathy and caring what does that say about me? If I don’t care about myself or other people and I keep feeling that way, do parts of my soul just die off until nothing is left except a brief residue of the better person that I could have been?
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As a side note in this video: “Anorexic” is a medical term for a symptom, the loss of appetite and interest in food. It is not the same as “anorexia nervosa” which is a psychiatric disorder. In popular/lay use, people often say anorexia when what they are actually referring to is anorexia nervosa, which is where the apparent confusion comes from.
I was shocked by that response by your fellow passenger. How traumatic, including for the train driver and those involved in the recovery of the body and telling next of kin.
I used to like this guy- I mean we would chat and stuff but after hearing him say that, I really can’t look at him let alone want to speak to him again.
Can’t blame you.
And yes, the fellow upset about his train being delayed is a self-centered pig. We seem to have a lot of them these days.
It’s a despicablle way to behave in the face of death- or in life .
Love this post. The dilemma is that we don’t allow people to make decisions about exiting life, at least until the exit is inevitable and sometimes not even then. (There’s no guarantee that a hospital or nursing home will honor a living will.) We assume that any such decision is irrational, while other cultures treat ritual suicide with honor. (Example, the Buddhist priests who doused themselves with gasoline and set themselves on fire during Vietnam and more recently.)
Even in the Judeo-Christian culture, we are inconsistent in how we deal with suicide. For example, that mass suicide that is the Masada story is honorable. Basically, if you are dying for a cause you are rational, but if you are dying for no apparent reason, you are not. Unless of course you are a suicide bomber, in which case, despite the cause, you are irrational.
If we allowed a choice, people wouldn’t have to use trains or bridges. They could choose a more dignified exit.
Here in Washington State we passed the Death With Dignity Act in 2008. Our former Gov. Booth Gardener spearheaded the initiative. You are right, without the support some people end up in front of trains instead of being allowed a more dignified exit, you’re right it’s not always obvious why someone commits suicided but as a rule, I never judge what brought a person to that point and all I know is I will have sympathy for the departed.