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Saturday 6 December 2008

And He jumped.....

Today, I made up my mind that I was going to 1. Blog and 2. Study

Thank God I am able to do the first, the verdict is still out on the latter though :-)

To be honest I have LOOONGED to blog. Infact I have blogged tens of times in my mind but I have not found the strength to put fingers to keyboard - I don't know what the problem really is but I won't focus on that now so I don't ramble on and on and on and on......

This is quite a sober piece...

Yesterday, I travelled to a neighbouring city for the evening and was glad when the programme I went for finished earlier than expected. I was happy to jump on the train back home to get to my lovely housemates, facebook and bed (and maybe books.....maybe) when it was announced at the station that the train had been delayed indefinately as a result of a fatal accident.

What happened was that someone had jumped in front of a train in what was most probably a suicidal attempt (of which the person succeded). A lot of commuters who had just had a long day at work and were looking forward to getting home were quite disgruntled to say the least even whilst they sympathised with the poor victim.

Surprisingly (or not), the general attitude of people was more disgruntled than sympathy....

Whilst being delayed for 2 hours, I had time to wonder a bit about the situation. The death of a human being is never a pleasant one, added to the fact when the end comes in such a brutal manner. I used to believe that no one really wants to die, even for christians who know the joy of a better place in heaven, meeting face to face with their father, hence the joke "everyone wants to go to heaven but no one wants to die".

What I wonder is, what compelled this person to want to end it all? Why did he feel the need to take his own life? What could have happened in his life for him to believe that jumping in front of a speeding train was the best way out? Did he not have something to live for - Family, friends?? Had he made a cry for help but no one took him seriously? Why would he voluntarily do that to himself?? Why did he choose that particular exit route? Was he trying to make a statement??

Why were people not moved as such? Has it become normal to commit suicide? Is it just another "unfortunate" incident?

So many questions.... some of which may never get a proper answer.

It's a sad sad thing. The only thing he got out of it probably was the stand-still of rail transport for 2 hours. Sad truth is that he still remains a faceless and nameless statistic even to us who heard about the "incident". I feel sad for the wasted life, the wasted destiny, the wasted opportunity.....I wonder if he heard the saying "Where there's life, there's hope". He probably did, but didn't believe it enough to want to stay alive.

Maybe, he knew that there was something wrong and he genuinely sought help but didn't find anyone to listen. Such a shame.....He could have looked up and said softly "Please help me, I need Your help".
This is also a learning curve for us to be sensitive to people who are down or just miserable...it just might be their cry for help

It's funny how people struggle each day to keep alive whilst somewhere else someone has just wasted one. May God bless his family if he had any and may He always give us the grace to see at least one thing in our lives worth living for.