Celebrating Life, instead!

I wanted to blog something about suicide because of the blog of Liz about another suicide supposedly attributed to poverty, and because I want to advocate that the media should stop this media-hype because of the possibility that suicide might actually be "copied" and misconstrued that it is cool to commit suicide as what Prudence has mentioned in her blog as Werther Syndrome.

I had to refresh my psychology since it was already eons ago! I rummaged through the net and looked for theories of attribution, cognitive dissonance and suicide itself. But then, discussing suicide is in itself mind-boggling. So, I decided not to discuss suicide for several reasons:

1. If I would stretch my mind just to present an academic discussion into a human interest blog entry, I would turn nuts! One did an anthropological study on suicide in Palawan for years! Plus, there are discussions that range from legal, philosophical, psychological, socio-cultural, anthropological, theological, medical, etc. etc. I only have one hour! I am not that gifted to put all these discussions into 4 paragraphs. Just Google it!
2. I might get disappointed if I cannot write an article because I made a personal promise that I owe my readers, which I can actually count with my ten fingers on my hand (smile), then I become so frustrated, and depressed and....no! I still have my wits intact. Don't worry!
3. Last, but not the least, I stumbled on a website, which I think is the only website in the Philippines (except for the news item) about suicide and support for suicidal persons. This is PRO-Life Philippines website. Actually nothing much is discussed about suicide. What caught my attention was THE JOURNEY OF LIFE.

Isn't this more blogworthy than the horrific and morbid stories about suicide?

....And I remember the day when my wife told me she was pregnant of Gio. The day when he was born and how I exclaimed: "Tatay na ako!" (I am now a father!).

Fatherhood was something I did not fear right from the start. I fully embraced the fact that I have to leave some parts of me behind. There were some trepidations, why not? It was my first time to be a father! But the joy of seeing your son in his nursery crib, holding him for the first time, inhaling his breath each morning, bathing him, feeding him in the middle of the night--would always be 100% effective in erasing the worries. The feeling is simply indescribable!

...and This poem of Robert Browning, Pippa's Song, would perhaps explain how I felt:

The year's at the spring

And day's at the morn;

Morning's at seven;

The hillside's dew-pearled;

The lark's on the wing;

The snail's on the thorn;

God's in his heaven---

All's right with the world!

Cross-posted at: Psyche