Tonight Geoff and I watched a documentary called The Bridge, where some guys watched the Golden Gate Bridge for an entire year and filmed people jumping to their deaths. In 2004, 24 people committed suicide by jumping off that bridge. It was kind of sickening and very sad, yet fascinating to think what must drive those people to do that? What’s going through their minds as they stand there looking down? One of the guys they interviewed had actually attempted it and lived, and said the second his hands left the railing he decided he didn’t want to die. (He managed to turn his body so his feet would go in first and not his head, which is what helped him survive the fall). It was really quite disturbing, but very well done.
Anyway, the song during the closing credits was my favorite Howie Day song, Escape. I never realized it was about suicide, so I pulled the CD out to listen and it turns out about half the songs on the CD (which I LOVE) are about suicide. Hmmm. And I think he was only about 16 years old when he made that album. He put his emotional turmoil to good use, cuz the album is amazing.
That reminds me of something I learned in music class last semester. Tchaikovsky, who we all know is a great composer (or at least we’ve heard of him), was also gay. He was caught having an affair with the son of someone in power (a judge or something), and was sentenced to death. However, his death sentence was that he had to kill himself, in a manner of his choosing, and he had six weeks to do it. During that final six weeks of his life, he composed his Sixth Symphony. Then he disappeared. If you wanted to get an idea of how a man felt who could never be truly happy being himself, but knew he was going to have to kill himself instead to give it a listen. (I still haven’t listened to it, but I hope to sometime). I might’ve got some of the facts wrong so feel free to correct me if you know better. This is just going off of memory. But what if you were in the same situation and had to kill yourself, how would you do it? It’s an interesting thought.
On a lighter note, I had an awesome birthday. I was surprised that so many people did such nice things for me or even remembered; I really wasn’t expecting it all, but it made my day very special. J
I love Geoff.
Anyway, the song during the closing credits was my favorite Howie Day song, Escape. I never realized it was about suicide, so I pulled the CD out to listen and it turns out about half the songs on the CD (which I LOVE) are about suicide. Hmmm. And I think he was only about 16 years old when he made that album. He put his emotional turmoil to good use, cuz the album is amazing.
That reminds me of something I learned in music class last semester. Tchaikovsky, who we all know is a great composer (or at least we’ve heard of him), was also gay. He was caught having an affair with the son of someone in power (a judge or something), and was sentenced to death. However, his death sentence was that he had to kill himself, in a manner of his choosing, and he had six weeks to do it. During that final six weeks of his life, he composed his Sixth Symphony. Then he disappeared. If you wanted to get an idea of how a man felt who could never be truly happy being himself, but knew he was going to have to kill himself instead to give it a listen. (I still haven’t listened to it, but I hope to sometime). I might’ve got some of the facts wrong so feel free to correct me if you know better. This is just going off of memory. But what if you were in the same situation and had to kill yourself, how would you do it? It’s an interesting thought.
On a lighter note, I had an awesome birthday. I was surprised that so many people did such nice things for me or even remembered; I really wasn’t expecting it all, but it made my day very special. J
I love Geoff.
3 comments:
Call me morbid, but I found that movie so intriguing. I would watch it again.
Suicide is an impetuous act – or the act of an ill person lacking the capacity to make a sane decision. Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.
Limiting access to the means of death has proved to dramatically reduce suicides.
98% of those stopped never attempt suicide again.
The rails at the Golden Gate Bridge are simply too low and access is too great. The rails of the bridge need to be raised.
Four people try to die there every week and one succeeds.
The true victims are the loved ones left behind many of which carry terrible emotional scars the rest of their lives...
San Franciscans and the people of the Bay Area can no longer hide their collective heads in the sand - we are now well aware of the horror taking place and as such have a moral obligation to do something to end the deaths at the Golden Gate Bridge.
Please help raise the rails - and end the tragic deaths
http://www.bridgerail.org
I don't know who you are, but if you read this again... in the special features the producer talked about how there was some kind of proposal to raise the rails on the bridge and it was turned down.
I am sorry if you know someone who took their life. Yeah, that would be nice if we could end the tragic deaths. But you know, if someone wants to kill themselves, they're going to find a way to do it, regardless of the height of the rails on the Golden Gate Bridge. To end tragic deaths we would have to take away medications, guns, cars, airplanes, and just about anything else you could think of.
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