Of Suicide Notes, Fireworks, and Variables.

Is it a strange thing to say that I’m fascinated by suicide notes? More than likely it is, but I sort of am.

Now, move past the obvious “I’m going to kill myself” bit. Once you take a step back from that portion, it’s almost like watching a sad fireworks display.

Allow me to explain my firework metaphor-

It’s a poor display, lemme tell you- Dim colours that barely reach three feet above the observers’ heads, and when they go off it’s a sad puff rather than a boom.

Then comes the finale.

One final chance to prove that these were fireworks worth spending all kinds of time and care on.

So… with one last BANG! The firework goes off in a vibrant display of colours that it wasn’t able to show in all the times past… an explosion that knocks observers off their feet…

But…

But it’s messy. Unorganized. Frantic.

I imagine if you’ve ever been there, you get it.

So I like to read suicide notes. Because it’s the one last message they get to share. It’s their last firework to display to the world. Even when the world and society ignored their feeble attempts to show themselves, they pay attention now. They have to now.

Let me finish the metaphor-

Once the last firework has exploded in this beautiful, although scrambled, array of personality…

It’s gone.

Forever.

Lost.

Until another sad firework display rises up in its place.

We all know what this means, correct?

So… allow me to throw in an extra variable (for all of you math-y readers, I apologize for making your heart leap out of your throat. Roll with me though. As my science-y readers will understand, life is full of variables thrown together into one problem).

Say the firework had been treated to an extra kick of gunpowder, or the chemicals that make the colours more… well, colourful.

What if those sad fireworks had a helping hand? Well, perhaps not a hand, as these are fireworks, but something to make it better.

Maybe not perfect, no, but better. Helped.

Now that we have the metaphor out of the way, replace the variables with names and situations.

Show all your work.

Solve for an answer.

Now think about how you fit into this problem.

I don’t know about you, dear reader, but I, for one, am both an x (A sad firework) and a y (That extra kick of gunpowder).

So the next time you stumble across a suicide note or a feeble attempt to ask for help, don’t walk away from the display- Run out there, gunpowder at hand.