Stick around, make yourself comfortable...

“Tragedy is if I cut my finger,
comedy is if you walk into an open sewer and die.”
– Mel Brooks

Yesterday’s countdown of my “favorite” suicides demonstrates that I live by this quote. There are few things so tragic that we cannot find some humor in them. I firmly believe that.

When tragedy happens to YOU, then you have a choice to make. It’s either laugh at yourself or wallow in misery at every tiny cut. Existentially, life is what you make it.

One can work day-labor and live in a shelter and still have a wonderful existence. One could have huge amounts of money and be miserable. Everyone I know lives life somewhere in the middle.

I don’t find a lot of nobility in suffering. I do admire survival. I’ve been extremely fortunate in my life but I trust that I will survive whatever awaits me. There is no other choice.

My beliefs are a crazy-quilt combination of “each of us have the opportunity to change the world for the better; to not try is a waste” and “there is no heaven, no eternal reward for good deeds or punishment for bad ones.” I live a life of “do unto others…” mixed with “shit happens.” My life is an open book which is none of your business.

I cannot kill myself. If I lose my job, my wife, my family (God forbid ptooey, ptooey) - I will still be required to live, if only to spread the word of the joy they have brought me. Or maybe just to be bitter about it and therefore be a cautionary tale to others. Anything less tragic would be a stupid reason to kill myself.

I believe in the right to death. If someone else chooses to check-out, then that’s their business. If they inconvenience others, then they are selfish bastards. If you are a pedophile or some other threat to others then by all means – end it. One can make the world a better place that way.

On the other hand, there are plenty of reasons to be depressed, there are plenty of reasons to be angry, there are plenty of reasons to lose hope, lose faith, or lose one’s way in the world. There are also usually plenty of ways to climb out of your predicament. You’ll never know if you don’t keep trying.

I'm not sure why my thoughts took this ponderous turn, but that’s what you get today.

Keep trying. No matter what. If you succeed then wahoo, let me know all about it. If you fail, then pick yourself up and tell me all about it.

Life is all about the stories. Stick around and tell me one.