How many people have heard the M.A.S.H. theme song? How many people know that the refrain goes as follows?

 

“Cause suicide is painless,

It brings on many changes,

And I can take or leave it if I please”

 

Yesterday I received the terrible news that a young family member had taken the “painless” way out of his pain, and ever since, the words of that song have been echoing in my ears. Because, for those who are left behind, suicide is far from painless. It is a pain that echoes down the years.

 

The ripples from any death spread far and wide. Did he mean for his mother to find his lifeless body, the last image she has of her beloved son one that no mother should ever have to see? What of his twin, whom he lived and worked with? What pain he has inflicted on the ones he loved most of all and who loved him best.

 

He left a note, long and articulate, that out of respect for his family I will keep to myself. But it was a cry from the heart that anyone in his place might have written. The details aren’t important. What he was expressing was a wish to be happy, and his pain at his inability to achieve that blessed state.

 

There isn’t a moral to this story, as suicide is not only painful, it is timeless. Down through history people have opted out of life in this tragic fashion. It is a part of the human condition that we have to learn to live with. Those of us who struggle on through the dark patches could have told that young man that time changes everything, but he still wouldn’t have listened. He would still be singing that tragic song:

 

“Cause suicide is painless,

It brings on many changes,

And I can take or leave it if I please”