Silence Does Not Help
My wife sent me this clip of “Kristoff St. John’s ‘Y&R’ Co-Star Eric Braeden’s Emotional Reaction to His Friend’s Death”
She also sent me this message and I couldn’t have said it any better myself.
And this is why you do actually need to talk about things and check on people
I have to admit. This is painful to watch. Please be advised.
That moment, when Eric realizes how not talking about it was a mistake, and the utter despair at not knowing what he could have done instead, shook me. This is where we are as a society. We don’t want to talk about hard things, we don’t understand the pain and despair people feel, especially after a loved one takes their own life the way Kristoff’s son did, and we don’t want to think about it. We don’t know how to fix it, or what to say. It’s sad, it brings us down, it’s negative stuff, and my life ain’t got time for negativity. But it’s real pain, and our inability to sit with our own pain, let alone someone else’s pain, with them, keeps us from reaching people who need it the most.
If we can’t sit with their pain, who will?
Who will sit with us in our pain?
If the answer continues to be no one, we have learned nothing.
