I went to see a magic show a week ago. Usual stuff. Stuffing his assistant inside a coffin and poking a dozen swords through it, taking them out and there you go – alive as she was before she was punctured in twelve different places. This trick is about the most widely used poster image for a magic event. IS that trying to show us, in hindsight, something about life? That it is like a magical event? – Or the deceit that comes with it?
I think what is more important is if we even realize it. We have children these days, as young as ten, who commit suicide. They have probably never seen a magic trick in their self-chosen short lives. Instead of pulling out the thorn that’s pierced them, they choose to end their lives. And that’s that – end of the show, folks! And the magic ceases to make any sense, level any importance – just a fleeting rite of passage, undone by one hideous monster of a bad outcome. What is it about a being that makes him want to stop breathing because he tripped and fell? How is his will to live so much more different than the ones who still live the ordeal?
When I was in my sophomore year in college, one student was found hanging from a rope in his room, three days after he had killed himself. There were all kinds of rumors – his academics weren’t good enough, his lover had scorned him, he didn’t have enough money to support himself and neither did his parents, and all that make engaging stories. But whatever the story, the end is death. And that by itself is a question. Sure, life can get excruciatingly difficult and painful to live at certain times, but living through it – is there any better way to reward your parents who created you – the greatest magic trick ever? Now killing yourself – telling your parents their efforts, their love, was all in vain? Was a waste? Was the most useless, pathetic, wretched thing on this planet?
Yes, what about them? What about your parents? If you can have immense strength and nerve – and heart – to throw away twenty years of feeding, loving, caring and raising with one slash of the knife, surely you have the courage to live through whatever is agonizing you? There is no mountain you can’t climb over, no mistake you can’t learn from, no thorn you can’t pull out and no wound that won’t heal. If you can’t think about how you’re going to move on from a big hit – are you setting an example for your parents to snuff of their lives, too?
There was this kid on the news a couple of years back – he took his own life because some dance show on television rejected him. Now, probably there’s been some sugar and salt poured on that story before it hit the news. But there’s no denying that he took his own life. The cause isn’t as shocking as the deed itself. He was only ten.
How does a ten year old even begin to feel the pressures of life before hanging up the white flag? Does one ever think how his actions would affect those around him, or does he just act selfishly because that’s the most painless thing to do at the moment? What is so intimidating about pain that one is scared to even face it, not deal with it?
I have no sympathy for those that take to the gun on themselves. My essay goes out to their parents, who did nothing short of a magic by bringing them to this planet. My family has a friend who is a most fantastic teacher, an honest man, and a loving father who did nothing wrong but raise his only daughter as best as he could. She jumped on the train tracks when her board examination results made her feel like the worst magic trick ever – and now her father has left their home and nowhere to be found. I wouldn’t pray ‘rest in peace’ for her – I would say so to her father.
