'Life is a brilliant thing!'

This is what I wish that I had thought of saying when I was the MC for the Suicide Prevention Play last week, but sometimes we don’t think of things in time! It would have been a good ending to the play that focused on evoking thoughts of everything from falling in love to the smell of rain.

Ryan, the actor, in the one-man show pulled it off and subtlety enlightened the public on the issue of suicide. He acted out the usual communication sequence that could happen when a child is involved with suicide and the fact that the child often has more questions than answers by the end of the conversation.

The play expounded on the news media and the fact that the spoken and printed way those suicides are reported can actually cause others to follow the action and increase the incidence. He challenged us as a society to insist that this type of influence is not allowed.

At one point he demonstrated how depression could affect relationships especially when the affected person would not or could not accept that they needed treatment.

Finally, he found a coping mechanism that worked for him. He developed a conscious awareness of the brilliant things around him and the belief that he should value them and share them with others. In the old days, we would call it counting one's blessings!

My thanks to everyone that supported this event. We are united in the movement to help each of our residents realize that their life and body are brilliant things.