Tag: US national crisis and suicide hotline: CALL 988 (TTY available) or chat online at SuicidePreventionLifeline.org
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Melville’s Bartleby: An absurd casualty
Simon WeinPetach Tikvah, Israel Albert Camus (1913-1960) was a French writer and philosopher. He did not want to be pinned down as an existentialist or an absurdist, or indeed a nihilist. Nevertheless, he is well known for coining the expression ‘the absurd hero’. Camus used the Greek myth of Sisyphus to illustrate this idea. Sisyphus’s…
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A love-driven model of suicide prevention
Kate BaggottSt. Catharines, Ontario, Canada The suicide barrier on the Bloor Street Viaduct in Toronto is called the Luminous Veil. The beauty of the title is that it is intentional and intelligent. Construction of the barrier started in 2003 after more than a decade of advocacy. It was installed just a few years after the…
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What could have been
Gordon SunDowney, California, United States Every year, there are 400 stories like these. The second-year medical student. The social butterfly of her 106 classmates, yet her bubbly personality masks the loneliness of living on one coast after spending the first twenty-five years of her life on the other coast. The isolation is amplified by the…
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No laughing matter
Shafiqah Samarasam Subang Jaya, Malaysia “You’re only given a little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it.” These were the words of Robin Williams, the man whose own laughter was enough to make us laugh. In a world where tragedy occurs every day, his words helped us to understand the poignant meaning behind it. “Comedian”…