When does it stop
My daughter found out yesterday that a fellow drama member from high school took his own life this past weekend.
It was difficult news to hear. It made for a tough day for the high school and a very tough day for my daughter. It didn't make any sense. He didn't fit the profile. He was well liked, very involved, respected, looked up to, active, and had a very bright disposition. You never saw him without a smile.
I took courage in the fact that he was faceless to me. The helped me be the "brave dad" and allowed me the steel to be strong while helping the young people grieve. It's not that I didn't think it tragic. It's just that it allowed me to keep it in that respectful place in my mind where we put all the news of tragedy we take in from around the world on a daily basis. That place we put it to stay sane.
After we had put the boys to bed, my wife asked me, "What was the name of the boy who was in the play you directed last summer?" I made a call. It was him.
She said that before I had arrived home from work, she had been comforting our daughter who had described him in detail. She said that from my duaghter's description she had suddenly gotten a very clear picture in her head.
In an instant that emotional distance was gone. We were now all active mourners.
Is it just me or has the world come unhinged? It's getting to be too much. Enough already.
I apologize that this site is becoming a place of constant sorrow. It has just become so relentless lately. And now the Gulf Coast is bracing to be slammed again before they even have had a chance to get fully to their feet.
If you have broadband, watch this video I found. It deals mostly with Katrina imagery, but it sums it up nicely for me right now.
Wake Me Up When September Ends.
It was difficult news to hear. It made for a tough day for the high school and a very tough day for my daughter. It didn't make any sense. He didn't fit the profile. He was well liked, very involved, respected, looked up to, active, and had a very bright disposition. You never saw him without a smile.
I took courage in the fact that he was faceless to me. The helped me be the "brave dad" and allowed me the steel to be strong while helping the young people grieve. It's not that I didn't think it tragic. It's just that it allowed me to keep it in that respectful place in my mind where we put all the news of tragedy we take in from around the world on a daily basis. That place we put it to stay sane.
After we had put the boys to bed, my wife asked me, "What was the name of the boy who was in the play you directed last summer?" I made a call. It was him.
She said that before I had arrived home from work, she had been comforting our daughter who had described him in detail. She said that from my duaghter's description she had suddenly gotten a very clear picture in her head.
In an instant that emotional distance was gone. We were now all active mourners.
Is it just me or has the world come unhinged? It's getting to be too much. Enough already.
I apologize that this site is becoming a place of constant sorrow. It has just become so relentless lately. And now the Gulf Coast is bracing to be slammed again before they even have had a chance to get fully to their feet.
If you have broadband, watch this video I found. It deals mostly with Katrina imagery, but it sums it up nicely for me right now.
Wake Me Up When September Ends.
posted by Will at 7:09 AM
4 Comments:
Oh my! That's never an easy thing to deal with. It's so hard on the other teens, it confuses them, and hurts them so. I hope the school will make counselors available.
God bless.
. . . oh I so hear you . . . just so much sorrow and push and resistance and funk . . . but if we hang in, there will come another upsweep . . . for every down an up . . . Life knows what its doing . . . even if we don't get it, she/he/it does . . . big hug to you . . . :) K
Such very sad news. Although I respect the right of every individual to have control over his/her life, as someone who's struggled with deep depression at various times in my life, at moments like this I always wish just one person could have successfully conveyed to him that IT WILL PASS...if we just hang on... But those hanging on moments are just too overwhelming for some souls. So very sad. Because in spite of everything that's going on in the world right now, we all have so very much to live for.
Yes, that really is such sad news. I don't even know what to say.
Sometimes I think it's the kids who appear to have it all 'together' or who don't seem to fit a 'profile' that are the most susceptible ... they somehow feel too much pressure to be a certain way or to keep up a certain front, and the chasm between who they really are and what they feel they have to project to the world becomes too much. So sad.
They say it's always darkest before the dawn, Will, so I think (hope) there is light ahead soon. Keep the faith.
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