“If you dare to die, then you should dare to live!”

I remember my first chemistry class in Form 4 more than a decade ago. Our chemistry teacher then told us the different ways we could commit suicide. (Nowadays, we could easily get such information just from “googling” it.) Now, before anyone jumps the gun and thinks to report the said teacher to the authorities or condemns that teacher, allow me to finish the story. Our teacher went on to tell us the pain we would have to endure for each method we use and the terrible consequences we face should we fail in the attempt. For instance, what if we fail in our attempt to jump off a high building and end up paralysed instead. This method to bring awareness of the reality of suicide was indeed shocking but pretty effective then.

In the last couple of years, I have read more and more cases of young people falling into depression and attempting suicide. It is a strange phenomenon ~ the more progressive a society becomes, the more social ill prevails. There seems to be a correlation between progressiveness and suicide attempts. I could be wrong but I thought perhaps life is too good for youngsters today (at least for many of them) i.e. they do not have to worry about earning enough money to pay tuition fees, they do not need to scrimp and save to buy something they like, etc. ~ life is literally served on a silver platter. Perhaps with so much less to worry, youngsters have too much time to think. After all, isn’t an idle mind a devil’s playing field?

A week back, during a heart to heart session with a group of friends, I was shocked to discover that a few of my friends have thought of suicide and a few have attempted suicide before in their youth. A few came from broken homes and thus, the act was a way to gain attention. A few others came from good homes, but along the way, life has gotten too stormy to handle. Whatever the motivation, the end result was to end one’s own life. Those who have made the attempt before came out of the experience very much stronger. They see life as something worth living. In the words of a wise friend who went through the whole experience, “If you dare to die, then you should dare to live!”

For me, the idea of suicide is enough to snap me out of whatever depression I am in; let alone think of the different methods to die. There are so many people out there dying of starvation, dying of AIDS, bird flu, illnesses, dying in a war they did not start, dying from terrorist attacks, dying from other people’s idealism! And these are the same folks who would die for a chance to live. (Pardon the pun.) Put in such a context, should we not strive to keep this life? It’s the only one we will have in this life time.

But, a friend told me it is not the same, that there is no comparison in the world, that when a person compares and ceases to act, the person is merely sweeping the issue under the carpet. Years from now, the issue would crop up and drive the person to suicide again. Having no such experience, it is extremely difficult for me to visualise and comprehend. I am the first to admit that I could not fathom why people would attempt suicide. Perhaps because I see life as a half full glass, I believe there is so much to live for.

Isn’t it a matter of shifting our paradigm on how we look at a situation? Perhaps it is my stubbornness to always find that silver lining in every cloud, but what is so wrong with looking at the silver lining instead of the cloud? One friend claimed that that is literally sweeping our problems under the carpet. I beg to differ. I see it as looking at a situation with a different perspective. For a dramatic example, a person loses his sight. He could either, wallow in self pity, rage at the entire world and live a bitter life or he could enhance his other senses and use that to live a better life. The reality is, his blindness will not change but his perception of his helplessness has changed. I know that it is not easy but would one want to live the rest of his life in bitterness or would one want to live his life in peace and a modicum of happiness.

Of course, there is always another way out ~ suicide. But isn’t that a coward’s way out? After all, if we dare to die, why not take that extra step and dare to live?

I dare you to live!