It's been a STINKIN' long time since the last time I updated. Nobody called, nobody wrote. One can't expect it, of course.
Being old (45), self employed, and the dad of girls old enough to BE suicidegirls puts a different perspective from what is usually found here. I've discovered there just isn't any substitute for actually putting in the days that make up a life- the ups, the downs, the duldrums, and those times when life just seems to move so fast one wonders what's happening.
We have a special needs kid. Brain damaged from birth, bi-polar, and has an autistic condition. He started cutting himself yesterday. Higher incidence of suicide from any of the three, but the combination of all three is rather rare. This child is serious work, and serious heartbreak. Smart kid, very lost in the social world, desperate to fit in yet completely unequipped to do so. He feels he has to compete with his siblings, all super achievers who are either popular or super-popular, and a younger brother who is one of those kids who can excel at just about anything. I honestly can see no light at the end of his tunnel.
Days go from sunshine to rain rather quickly here with this family member. And non of the rest of us has the bi-polar to help that along.
Being old (45), self employed, and the dad of girls old enough to BE suicidegirls puts a different perspective from what is usually found here. I've discovered there just isn't any substitute for actually putting in the days that make up a life- the ups, the downs, the duldrums, and those times when life just seems to move so fast one wonders what's happening.
We have a special needs kid. Brain damaged from birth, bi-polar, and has an autistic condition. He started cutting himself yesterday. Higher incidence of suicide from any of the three, but the combination of all three is rather rare. This child is serious work, and serious heartbreak. Smart kid, very lost in the social world, desperate to fit in yet completely unequipped to do so. He feels he has to compete with his siblings, all super achievers who are either popular or super-popular, and a younger brother who is one of those kids who can excel at just about anything. I honestly can see no light at the end of his tunnel.
Days go from sunshine to rain rather quickly here with this family member. And non of the rest of us has the bi-polar to help that along.
Your son's situation is heartbreaking. I will keep him in my thoughts and (such as they are these days) prayers. I do know from my own life and those of loved ones that sometimes the brightest lives are those that have suffered the most. Your son has huge challenges in front of him, but perhaps with your help he can persevere.
A note about dueling: in England at one period of time, the rapier (a thin, piercing blade) was generally harrumphed and eventually outlawed as it had become the fashion with the young gentlemen of the time. Of course, the weapon's swarthy Mediterranean-ness might have been enough to turn the establishment against it, but they also considered (quite rightly) that fighting with a sissified pointy stick would only dull the Englishman's prowess with the English long-sword -- a proper weapon of war should (coughwhencough) England find Herself at odds with some Continental power.
But perhaps most importantly, they felt they had to stop these gentlemen dueling with fencing swords because a typical rapier wound went *through* the torso of its target, usually leaving the target enough time before shock set in to put his rapier *through* the torso of the original stabee. Then, of course, the short-bladed weapons in the off-hand would come into play, probably once both gentlemen were already on the ground, rolling around in the mud, feces, bile and blood.
One gentleman would die on the day, and the 'winner' would get to die more slowly as he (bled out internally / died from infection / died from organ failure).
Aaaaaand . . . there's your Human History So Stupid It Must Be True Fact of the day.
p.s. I got married.