It's Everyone's Loss

The title song to the TV show (and movie) MASH tells us that "suicide is painless". I never thought much about it until last week when I found out that a former childhood friend and Facebook friend had taken his life. Charlie was a talented musician and and studio engineer. The musical world is used to its rising stars burning out, but rarely like this.

You see, Charlie was more than a musician. He had friends. He had parents. He had a fiance. So many people touched by one or as the poet wrote, no man is an island. Each of these suffers today because of their loss. A sister wrote me to say that no one understands why except it wasn't and one big thing, only little things that added up to influence this choice.

Charlie's death touched me as well. We weren't close. In fact, I had just found him on Facebook back in the Fall. He shared the story of his life, a meandering tale of success and loss. He was like many of us, following his path where it led him. I found out by logging onto his Facebook page and seeing the notes from a female admirer. I thought to myself it was hardly appropriate, until I got further down the conversation and saw that this was written in memorial.

I struggled with this for several days, and so today, I am writing about my feelings. Of all the things that I have learned from Charlie's death, the most poinient lesson, is that suicide is not painless and my life was more for knowing him and somehow less for the loss.