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Is Suicide for Cowards?

Death becomes no-one, whether you choose it or it chooses you.

Jeremy Helligar
6 min readAug 13, 2019
Photo: Needpix.com

“I’m not scared of dying, but I’ve built such a beautiful life, and I’m not ready to leave it.” — Dr. Sherwin Nuland, author, How We Die

Someone I love very much recently told me about the time he went out to the ledge and almost jumped from it. Extreme depression and disillusionment had brought him there. The show was over, and he was ready to say goodbye … or so he thought.

Before he took off and left a mess for others to clean up — literally and figuratively — something he still can’t identify pulled him back.

Was it courage? Living, after all, is not for the faint of heart.

Or was it cowardice? Taking the so-called “easy way out” can be gruesome, bloody, and painful — especially if one fails and lives to die another day.

Taking the so-called “easy way out” can be gruesome, bloody, and painful — especially if one fails and lives to die another day.

What if he had jumped? Would it have been an act of bravery — as someone who has always been terrified of heights, I think it takes major cojones to even make it to the ledge — or the ultimate act of cowardice and…

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Jeremy Helligar
Jeremy Helligar

Written by Jeremy Helligar

Brother Son Husband Friend Loner Minimalist World Traveler. Author of “Is It True What They Say About Black Men?” and “Storms in Africa” https://rb.gy/3mthoj

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