The suicide rate for young people, especially men, has risen sharply in recent times. In addition to this there is a major problem which no Government has yet begun to consider seriously, namely that as technology takes over more and more jobs, increasingly people are going to be without meaningful occupation or purpose to their lives. And so there is an urgent need to find an inner centre which, all too often, our churches no longer provide. For some, if they can afford it, therapy can help, but even simpler is the practice of silent meditation which enables one to reach the centre of one’s being and to become more aware of how each of us is meant to live our lives. This is perhaps the greatest challenge of our times.
Dear James, Thank you.
It’s just possible that the reply I sent a moment ago vanished so I’m having a second go as it is SO IMPORTANT a subject.
I could not agree with you more. My first husband took his own life in 1977. Looking back as he fell further into his depression, in a society that he understood through experience to be intolerant of mental illness, he became increasingly controlling of those things that made him feel secure – his family, causing it eventually to fail him. After a particular event, I had to leave with the children. As I had long felt was a possibility, if it came to this, he took his life after a further two more attempts and died 5 days later. The impact does not stop with the one soul who has gone. It is lived with for the rest of their lives by those who love them and can become a cause of mental ill health in them… It impacts on the whole of society, on OUR well being as a nation.
There are some welcome changes since then for which to be thankful, but the level of our committment isbeing outpaced by the scale of the problem. I believe it has to grow into institutional change of mind and heart, and it starts with each one of us. Institutions arte made up of individuals. The do seem to be first and foremost about the bottom line and arrogantly fixed in their belief in their own importance and survival, rather than the way the operate. I include THE CHURCH IN THIS. Service to others, self respect through respect for every individual human being, does not seem to be given a high enough consideration. Employee management has become product management, to be discarded when no longer required – quite possibly with very little thought.
I do not believe this is the way we are called to live as Christians. The ghastly thing is that we are all implicated simply by virtue of living in his fallen and deeply loved creation. I’ve said more than enough, I will spare you more,James!
With much love,
Diana