Animal Suicide

I was driving down an interstate in the middle of Phoenix, huge concrete walls on both sides, and a dead cat right in the middle of the road. How did it get there? It must have taken some serious effort. A drop from either wall would have killed or crippled the thing and even then, I’ve never known a cat to jump off something it didn’t have a way back up on, and I don’t think that cats really lose their balance in situations like that either. So I started thinking. Do animals commit suicide? Then I started thinking about all of the animals that I’ve seen pancaked in roads or darting across them at the last possible instant. I’ve even seen birds fly directly into oncoming traffic. There must be something to it. I realize that for a lot of them there must be some kind of daredevil aspect to it, but still, isn’t even that a way of tasting death?

I have to admit though, sometimes I find myself thinking about suicide. That sounds bad. Don’t worry friends, I don’t think about actually doing it, I think about what it must take to do it. There has to be something kind of empowering about it, taking that kind of thing into your own hands, deciding your own fate. How many people get to choose how and when they get to die? And if you are at a place in your life where you don’t feel like there’s anywhere else to go but pain and misery, then why not? I know of too many people who suffered their last days, months and sometimes years on this Earth and for what?

Many cultures (largely if not entirely Eastern cultures) see death as a part of life and nothing to fear. Isn’t that better than being afraid, or worse still, denying the fact that it will happen to you at all and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it?

The argument against it would be the question, “How do you know it wouldn’t get better if you just held on a little bit longer?” But isn’t that like the person who stays at the party too long because he doesn’t want to miss anything and winds up unwanted and passed out in his own excrement. I just think that at some point a person must realize that it’s over. They made their stand and while they may have a few regrets, they did the best that they knew how to do and it’s time to go. It might even be exciting. To die would be a great adventure. I think I stole that line from Hook.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating suicide, I’m just questioning it. I think there is a terrible stigma about it in our culture and I question that. It is a personal freedom and one that many would not agree with, but most people are afraid to die (second only to public speaking) while they think suicide is spineless which seems like a paradox to me. It might be the bravest thing a person can do and that being said, I’m not sure I could ever do it. Plenty of people I respect have done it though, so I do find it very difficult to cross it off as the act of a coward. I just wish I could understand it a little better.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
My next post will be lighter. I promise.