This one stings a little more. Anthony Bourdain was a guy I watched for many years as I lived vicariously though him as he ate and drank his way through the world. I appreciated his perceived toughness but openness to new experiences and cultures and was grateful I got to at least witness them through the box in my living room. I hope to have a fraction of the experiences he got to have in his life one day. He ended his life last week in a hotel room in France. Strung himself up with a bathrobe belt. What a waste...
I'm sympathetic to mental illness. I was medicated pretty heavily from 6 years old to 16. When I was a boy I tried to do the same thing with a belt, luckily I was a kid and didn't understand the process to succeed in the mission. I've had very close family members take a whole bottle of their medication and thankfully didn't succeed. I'm sure many of us have the same stories. Something is very wrong with our culture. Suicide is up 30 percent since 1999, according to the CDC. Even people who appear to have it all are susceptible. There's always been some romanticism to the act itself. Hemingway and Hunter S. Thompson come to mind off hand. The drive to want to be in control so much that even controlling when and where you leave the planet becomes a paramount in life. It's really the only thing we could control in life if you think about it; no other outside variables. We're just here for such a short time. Can't we grit through 80 years or so? We have forever for the converse...
I don't know, I'm sympathetic to it though. If you don't want to live anymore, why should you have to? It's a shame for the people who loved you and many of them won't be the same because of the act for the rest of their lives. Many taut the trope that we need to spend more on mental healthcare in America. They seem to be ignorant to the fact that people on psychiatric medication is alarming in this country with side-effects including, ironically, "suicide". I'm definitely not one of those people who hates corporations as much as I probably should but Big Pharma appears to be one of the more nefarious business' out there. Between creating a opioid epidemic and potentially creating drugs that lead to suicide that 1 in 6 American's are on, it may be time to start pointing fingers at the elephant in the room...
Anyhoo, this week on the podcast I got stood up again by a guest so I'm all by my lonesome talking Wyoming banning Rap after Kanye West's ranch listening party, Hurricane Maria death numbers become a point of contention in the Florida Senate race between Bill Nelson & Rick Scott and Miss America pageant ditches the swimsuits and becomes a "competition". Let me know what you think in the comments below or leave a voice or text message at (813) 693-2124. Check out the pod, here:
