Going through the suicide notes of some prominent people, it dawned on me that it doesn’t matter what your status in life is; rich or poor, we all have choices to make. We all have the chance to move on, but it all boils down to the choices we make, which is often a function of the activities of our mind. Our mind determines how we respond to challenges, handle heartbreaks and disappointments, and determines our failure or success. It determines how we finally end. A wise man once said, “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.”
This poem is not to criticize those who resorted to suicide; instead, it is to learn from them: Kurt Cobain, Lee Thompson, Gia Allemand, Jovan Belcher (pictured), Marilyn Monroe, Jiah Khan, Shakir Stewart, Freeddie E, etc. Wherever you are, we wish you would have held on a little longer. Reading about you, I strongly believe that you could have pulled through.
She graduated from school hopeful…
Never doubtful; she was purposeful…
She had chances, which she took as they came…
A vast fashionista, she advanced in fame…
Wanting more, she gave it all she had…
But in the end, it was painful and sad…
She grew depressed as no one shared her wealth…
Became addicted to drugs which affected her health…
Everyone around wanted to exploit her…
She had haters who would always fault her…
Independent, famous, rich lady…
Yet confused, unhappy, and lonely…
Her haters preyed on her weaknesses…
With hurting words they broke through her defenses…
It grew worse as her life became a mockery…
Her depression state grew into suicide tendencies…
As the mistakes of her past gradually unraveled…
She took an overdose of propoxyphene capsules…
Tweeting her last words, “YOU WIN”…
She already accepted defeat within…
Moving on….
The anecdote of a man countenanced with Sadness…
He was poor, unhappy, and restless…
Very bright but he lived on peanuts…
As he had no job to complement his efforts…
His poverty was a function of his state of mind…
Life gave him options, but he was so blind…
He couldn’t see beyond his challenges…
This grew to form suicidal traits…
As his lifeless body was found hung to a hook on his ceiling fan…
A suicide note was found ending with the last words, “I’m a sad man”…
What then…
Poor or Rich, Unknown, or Famous…
There is a raging battle within us…
We could win the fight and come out victorious…
Or accept defeat, which often ends up disastrous…
There’s this internal quest for more…
Rich men in spite of their possessions still steal from the poor…
People, being unsettled and hasty, they settle for less…
Prostitution, trafficking, kidnapping, armed robbery, fortune without stress…
Not concerned about the people they hurt…
Or the risk involved, going against all they’ve been taught…
But then…
There are those who have risen from poverty to stardom…
Through hard work, faith, and perseverance they gained freedom…
They gave their best to society and rose again when they fell…
The list is endless, tales of which I cannot completely tell…
Not staying defeated by challenges they faced…
Learning contentment; abounding as well as they abased…
Having touched lives, helped the poor, and fed those that hungered…
Peacefully ending with the words, “I came, I saw, I conquered”…
