World Suicide Prevention Day

Today is World Suicide Prevention Day, which has existed for the last 10 years. A little over a year ago one of my all-time favorite cousins took her life. And she was one of the last people I could ever have imagined doing that. I've known her since she was born and she was always such a happy, cheerful person. I'm about as stunned by it now as I was when I first heard it had happened.

So I want to make sure I highlight this day this year. The possibility of commiting suicide can be roiling beneath the surface of anyone under the right circumstances; no one is immune. In fact, it could happen to you, too. There are signs that someone is contemplating taking their life. We need to be alert for them and not deny them when we see them.

The signs, according to the National Suicide Prevention Hotline, are these:

• Talking about wanting to die or to kill themselves.
• Looking for a way to kill themselves, such as searching online or buying a gun
• Talking about feeling hopeless or having no reason to live.
• Talking about feeling trapped or in unbearable pain.
• Talking about being a burden to others.
• Increasing the use of alcohol or drugs.
• Acting anxious or agitated; behaving recklessly.
• Sleeping too little or too much.
• Withdrawing or isolating themselves.
• Showing rage or talking about seeking revenge.
• Displaying extreme mood swings.

If you observe these signs in someone, what do you do? Three things:

1. Ask them if something is wrong.
2. Be there for them to talk to.
3. Call the suicide hotline at 1-800-273-8255 for guidance, and encourage them to call it too.

And if you don't live in the US, please go to this web page, click on your country, and contact the center in your area.

What if you're online and someone seems to be talking about killing themselves? For some time now, many of the major social media sites have had a suicide prevention mechanism in place. Google automatically brings the Suicide Hotline up if you search for self-harm-related subjects.  This page tells you how to contact the safety teams for several social media sites.

Lauren Bacall, Robin Williams, and Synchronicity

Amazing. Robin Williams and Lauren Bacall both dying in one week. I've posted several times in the past on how famous people tend to die in 3's, and people in my office are already speculating about who the third one will be this time. Killjoy skeptics say it's just because humans are built to see patterns and that we notice celebrity deaths more once a really prominent one occurs, kind of like when you buy a Mitsubishi and suddenly you see them everywhere. But I think they're full of baloney.  They're the ones who, when you point out a beautiful sunset say, "It's just light being refracted by particles in the atmosphere."

Robin Williams

Robin Williams

At any rate, my favorite Robin Williams film is the one people tend to hate, Hook. Even Steven Spielberg, who directed it, doesn't have much good to say about it. Critics criticized it, Rotten Tomatoes only gave it a 31, but I loved it.

Now, other than Iron Man movies and Star Wars when it was a thing, I virtually never want to go to a movie. But I really wanted to see Hook. It's about one of my core beliefs (probably stemming from the fact that I had an incredibly happy childhood), that the secret of life is never losing your childhood, and specifically never losing your curiosity and sense of wonder about all of this. And Williams is just great at portraying a grown up Peter Pan, the ultimate little boy. When the movie begins Peter Pan has lost his childhood and has no thought or desire to communicate it to his own children. But he learns it again battling Captain Hook in Never Never Land, and takes it back with him when it's time to go.

Maybe it was a little cheesy but Robin Williams made me cry in that movie. I think that only he was child and adult enough to play this Peter Pan to such perfection. It's so sad to me that a man like that would be in so much mental pain that he would hang himself.

Lauren Bacall

Lauren Bacall 

Ms. Bacall I'm afraid I've never been a big fan of, though I liked her (and the whole cast, really) in Key Largo.  My favorite role of hers was in John Wayne's last movie, The Shootist. She's up there with Jimmy Stewart, Richard Boone, and the Duke in a good, gritty story about the death of the old west and old western icons, and it's just marvelous to behold.

Requiescat In Pace, Ms. Bacall and Mr. Williams.