Communication Lost

Dear Emily,

I went to go visit James once again this week, thinking that we would be alone, but no - Eve is back. I felt a certain tension when I arrived because I knew that she was beginning to be annoyed by my close relations with her husband. Nevertheless, we had a pretty interesting afternoon. James seemed to be completely enveloped by his poetry, so Eve and I began to discuss questions of ethics and philosophy. Somehow we stumbled on the ridiculously tabooed topic of suicide, and discussed it for quite a while. Eve and I had completely different views on the topic; hers being monotonous and logical, while mine was full of passion and conviction. Suicide, I told her, was like a terminal disease - one that springs from a feeling of overwhelming and uncontrollable emotion. She could not understand a word I was saying. Her interpretation of suicide was that of any person who doesn't ever seem to really be alive in the first place. She saw suicide as a foolish act of weakness. The conversation continued as follows...

"No, Eve. You're being way too close-minded. You just don't understand. Suicide is always so wrongly misinterpreted by those who don't understand what it is to FEEL. What happens is that some people are so completely overcome with passion that they feel they can no longer be bound to the physical reality to which they have been subjected. Suicide is an honorable action that no one less than a whole being, a completely full person, could undertake," I replied.

"Are you mad? Someone who kills himself is a coward. It's definitely easier to kill yourself than to withstand the tragedies that come with life. I mean, can't they find some source of rationality in their life?"

I could not believe her. I just wanted to stop talking to her because I knew she would never understand; I could never touch her heart with my reasoning. But I continued.

"Eve, when someone is driven to the point of suicide, there is no "rationality" that can save them. The passion that courses through their veins overpowers any sense of reason in their minds. They will never be as they once were - they will never achieve the level of happiness that they once felt in their life, and so nature takes control. When a person is so full of any dark emotion or passion left unfulfilled, any sense they once had disappears, and essentially they are lost - gone forever. They just can't be saved, and the saddest part of it all is that it's not completely their fault; society plays a major role in their abandonment. But, Eve, lets leave that for another conversation."

How different two people can be, and how easily they can misinterpret each other!

- Anna