The Why

It's a strange twist of some fate that i'm posting this on the tuesday after an easter weekend not long after the clocks have gone back, one when probably a whole heap of Londoners have gone nitro in celebration of perpetual twilight, and hence all the associations a tuesday post-monumental smackdown has on a mindset locking horns with the end of partytime and the onslaught of the working week.


Suicide is something that we will probably all be directly or indirectly touched by at some point in our lives. Two of my best friends lost their fathers to it. It is terrible and fascinating. At what point do humans lose touch with the will to keep breathing. It's the apogee of our inability to cope with our overworked brains, proof that maybe we've out-evolved ourselves. Who knows.

The BBC World Service does a thing called the Why Factor every week.

This week's was on suicide. It was brilliant, done with supreme delicacy and sensitivity. It interviews three people who have had direct experiences with the subject, and they talk through their thoughts and feelings, and their coping mechanisms. All are incredibly eloquent. I really recommend giving it a listen, it's only 18 minutes long.

You can check it out here.