Kori Gauthier, missing LSU student, identified as body found in Mississippi River

Of course. And I am honestly not trying to be rude or mean to you.

 

I can't even imagine a scenario where I would consider suicide, unless it was somehow necessary to save others that I care about. If my life went to total **** and there was nothing I could do to fix it, I'd either relocate somewhere new and start over or dissapear into the woods with a hatchet and a box of matches. Even if I were diagnosed with an eminently mortal and painful condition, I would still hold out hope for some sort of miracle at the last minute. And tbc, I fully understand that I am blessed to not have experienced the sort of pain that folks who do commit suicide must experience. I guess its that I can sympathize with suicidal urges, but I cannot empathize with them.

 

I've sent you a PM. I understand that you aren't trying to be rude or mean. I am willing to answer any questions you may have privately. I'm sure you (and other readers) can understand why I would not want the details of such deeply painful memories posted publicly.

 

It’s a joke. Calm down

 

Many people can't conceptualize the idea of taking one's own life. Most people have family support, friends, access to mental health professionals, etc. Some do not have those options available to them. More often than not, suicidal people are simply tired of being in emotional pain and see no clear path to resolving that. It doesn't make them crazy or selfish or weak. They are often just out of reserves to face another day.

 

Oh? I see.

So?
Just made a completely unrelated Off-Topic Remark (in a topic which had Nothing to do with the Clintons) just to take a cheap shot at them?
Got it.

IF you want to throw shade at the Clintons, feel free to start a thread in the appropriate section.

This is neither the thread nor the section to be throwing around (totally unrelated off-topic) "jokes" about the Clintons.

Anyway, back on-topic to the Gauthier Suicide, it is very tragic for all concerned.

A rather interesting tidbit, is that it is the highest bridge on Mississippi River.



Carry on.
And, by all means, feel free to start a thread shading the Clintons in the appropriate section.
Because, as noted above, this thread has absolutely nothing to do with the Clintons.

 

What is wrong with you? Presenting such a dichotomy is incredibly dishonest and offensive, then you spend the rest of the thread picking fights with several posters. Did you really just start a thread about a young woman's suicide just to stir crap up?

 

I am a lot younger than you and have known multiple people to do it. None of them were BFF's mind you. Just people I knew. 1 was the dad of a family in my neighborhood we were all friends with who did it completely out of the blue. The dead dad's cousin lives a few houses away and says to this day they still have no freaking clue why he did it. The family ate dinner and then walked into a storage room off their back patio and blew his brains out. A couple people I knew pretty much all my life through school did it. One had a real crappy family life with an abusive drunk father, and the other did it after we had graduated high school when he found out his girl and his best friend had been sleeping together forever behind his back. Have known a couple people who were more friends of friends types that I got along with but weren't especially close to who did it for failing health-related reasons.

 

Like I wrote, I have a friend who has the opinion that suicide is a selfish and cowardly act. His words, not mine. For some reason these words have stuck in my memory since he said them back in college, probably around 1992 or 1993, maybe it was 94 when Kurt Cobain killed himself.

I can somewhat understand his point of view, but always considered it to be a bit harsh, at the very least. It was such a strong statement that I think of it everytime I learn of a suicide. I thought of it when Chris Cornell killed himself and I thought of it when Anthony Bourdain killed himself. Chris left behind a wife and two kids and Tony left behind an Italian witch of a girlfriend and a daughter.

I can see now how you and others may view this question as offensive and disrespectful to the memory of this 19 year old woman and I apologize for that, but the question was not dishonest.

I find it difficult to characterize suicide as an act of cowardice, but I do see that it carries with it at least some characteristics of selfishness, but it isn't really a term that fits well either. And I certainly see it as a completely valid option for anyone suffering a painful terminal illness.

So if you have an interest in sharing your thoughts on the moral and ethical considerations that you have on suicide in memory of this young woman's life, here with me in this thread, then you are more than welcome to do so.

***
Picking fights? Just to stir crap up? What exactly is it you are doing now? Who is picking this fight?

If there is anything that almost everyone on this forum might possibly agree upon then one of those things might be that MJ is one of the nicest members here that currently participates. So yeah, I posted that I thought Pred and Darth were out of line with #5 and #6. Darth decided to double down and the conversation proceeded from there.

I apologize for this as well - I get your point - not the right context to have carried on with the usual PF style banter.

Seems like we could all benefit by stopping to ask ourselves, what would MJ post.

 

You presented the dichotomy, not your friend. Take responsibility. A lot of people live with severe depression and anyone who judges how they handle that by attacking them is the selfish one.

The only suicides that I would call selfish or cowardly are the ones who do it after going on a killing spree and then kill themselves instead of facing the consequences.

 

Stop....you're way off here.

Having some self awareness isn't narcissism.

 

I fail to see that self awareness has been demonstrated by the member posting to someone that if he had known 8 people who have committed suicide then he "would seriously start to wonder if I was the problem" and then doubling down by stating that he was "very serious when I said if I knew 8 people that had done that I might start to wonder if I was the common denominator" because he is 56 and has "never known anyone that committed suicide, not a single person in all that time. And I have a very wide circle due to moving as often as I have."

Do you consider this as a demonstration of self awareness, or are you just taking the member at his word, since he posted that he tries (and in this instance massively fails) "not to be the self unaware"? I do not consider a particularly spectacular demonstration of his claim to be self aware his offering the somewhat less than convincing example that he had a friend that had been married 4 times and who never considered himself as part of the problem.

Narcissistic, may be too strong a description, but these posts demonstrate anything but self awareness.

Something that never happened to him happened to someone else therefore those events must be related specifically to that someone else. Nope, that simply doesn't work as a demonstration of self awareness, much less any semblance of empathy.

About 20 vets a day kill themselves, 7300 a year. Does the retired Gunney blame these on the members who served and knew them?

And you choose to call me out? I'm the one who needs to stop? Good for you.

 

Thank you for sharing on this topic. It is very hard to talk about these things but I think that's the very reason we should talk about them. So many people around us are hurting inside and just get tired. I remain mindful of that and do all I can to never intentionally cause another living being any harm.

 

Thank you. I promise that I'm just a mere mortal doing the best I can to treat others the way I would like to be treated. Nevertheless, it is nice read such a complimentary post. Thanks, Grey Matter.

 

You don't consider Chris Cornell's suicide to have any element of selfishness to it? Leaving behind kids?

You have chosen to pick a fight with me and continue it. I like the way you took responsibility for calling me out on picking fights and then conveniently skipped responding to the part of my post pointing out your hypocrisy for picking a fight with me. Good for you.

I never said that this young woman was a coward or selfish. You seem to think that I was making a side-eyed sort of comment that I believed her act to be cowardly or selfish, when it was nothing of the sort. Quite the contrary in my opinion, that is a pretty spectacularly brave way to go out. Not the Golden Gate bridge, but a pretty scary leap to death nevertheless.

Really painful. 19. Oh man. Only nineteen and an LSU student as well. That's a fantastic school - how was an LSU freshman so thru with life to have done such a thing?

You accused me of being dishonest with creating this thread. I used to like you here. Not so much anymore, at the moment.

 

WARNING:

 

Well, I think you are too kind sometimes, but that is coming from me, a guy here that doesn't care if he comes across as a jerk from time to time, or maybe even all the time.

I think you sometimes might consider this excerpt from the Desiderata,

As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.

Nevertheless, your kindness is obvious to all and I stand by my assertions that posts #5 and #6 are of no value to this thread other than the negative example they represent as you pointed out.

 

It's very clear now that you misinterpreted what that poster was saying. They simply said IF they knew 8 people, THEN they would question whether they were the problem. You then claimed that was somehow making it about themselves and not the victim and thus narcissistic. I'm saying that's not true, that's simply being self aware. It's recognizing a pattern. Nothing more nothing less.

And your vet example is not applicable because we all know there's another underlying cause there. But either way, not all retired vets know each other. But think about it, if members of one military group that shared similar experiences all started committing suicide, wouldn't you think recognizing the pattern would be a good thing and not 'narcissistic'?

 

I have had two friends commit suicide.

One was the best man at my parents' wedding. He was like an uncle to me over the years. I got to go water skiing thanks to him. Many times. In 2011 he hung himself in his garage. My dad aged a thousand years when that happened. I attended a memorial service at his church and my dad was unable to speak.

The other one was my age, we grew up together in high school but were not very close. He lived about a dozen houses down the street from me and was kind of a jerk, but we were buddies. We had a house party in my basement once for another buddy that was moving to San Antonio. I reckon we were maybe 18. Had a pony keg of Michelob. That was sweet. He actually reached out to me about having the party, which surprised me and it worked out pretty well. He broke out some glow sticks, before anyone had any idea wtf glowsticks were. Then, he cut 'em open and we were a bunch of 18 year old kids trashing my parent's basement with green glow stick juice all over the place. It was on the walls and on our skin and clothes. It was awesome, beat the 90's ravers by almost a decade with the glowsticks. About 5 or 6 years later he had developed into a guy that I really liked. He put together an expedition to the Kentucky Derby infield that he invited me to go on that was nothing short of spectacular. I can't recall exactly the timeline, but he moved to Dayton OH I think it was and for some g-d reason shot himself in the heart with a Browning Hi Power 9mm. F'g Vince. Why?

Never crossed my mind that he was a coward or selfish. This was before my college buddy lit that opinion up in my head. And I certainly never considered my Dad's best man to have been selfish or a coward.

I have a friend of one of my very few best friends whose son killed himself. I think he was 15 at the time, also by hanging himself in the garage.

My wife's daughter's boyfriend's brother shot himself Christmas Eve a few years ago.

My brother's best friend died in a freak car accident just prior to beginning his freshman year of college. It made an indelible imprint on my brother having been a tragic accident, and may have been of even worse impact had it been a suicide.

My stepfather, a guy that I cannot say enough kind things about had twin sons and one of them was killed by an accidental gunshot. Not a suicide, but nevertheless a hole in his heart and my step brothers' and sisters' hearts that I can only imagine. Especially my step brother that was his twin.

I did certainly not create this thread to foster some of the posts that have come up here. But this place is what it is and we are stuck with the good and the bad of it, and for the most part the mods do do an excellent job of at least keeping it civil.

Condolences MJ on the loss of 8 folks to suicide.

 

I didn't misinterpret jack $****. Take your apologies for what the member posted elsewhere.

 

The Desiderata is my favorite piece. I have a framed print on my wall.

Thanks for your kind words.

 

Thanks, Grey Matter. Condolences to you as well.

 

I have one too! It was my Mom's. It's been in my life a long time.

 

Thanks MJ.