Thinking about Life and Death

When I was a child, I climbed the tree out back nearly to the top and sat for half an hour, sometimes an hour, watching things happen around the house and up the street. I also thought about things, mostly child things.

Now that I am a good deal older, I sometimes think about death and the meaning of life—my life and my death.

This is part of the reason I decided to interview people who attempted suicide for a book. I asked them two questions: What led up to your suicide attempt? and, What keeps you alive now?

Who better to know what death is about than someone who has confronted it themselves? Who better to know why they keep living than someone who nearly died?

The book is called Choosing to Live: Stories of Those Who Stepped Away from Suicide. It contains stories of thirty-four people who tried to kill themselves, told in their own words.

This blog is dedicated to those people and their stories. It is about what makes a life meaningful.

The book was published in 2017: Web page for Choosing to Live

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