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Modern Pterosaurs and Suicide Prevention

The complexities of depression and human despair—those should not be taken lightly, nor shoved aside with a simplistic poem or cute phrase of advice. And the best response to suicide is not to grab onto an impulsive and severe judgment of those who have chosen to throw away their lives. With all the lonely suffering in this world, however, we can each find some way to bring something positive into the life of another person, however small our lone attempt may appear on the surface, in this big world of ours.

Like many others, I was sad to learn of the passing of Robin Williams. Yet I suggest we each now focus on someone, among the billions of persons now living, who can benefit from something we can do or say positively. My own part may seem especially weak and indirect to some skeptics, perhaps, but I’ll be satisfied if only one person will benefit.

Living pterosaurs—what a discovery! Not in a biology textbook do we now see them but in the words of eyewitnesses of different races, religions, and languages. How many millions of years ago were they all supposed to have gone extinct? Look to the future, not to an imaginary past, for those flying creatures can be seen by almost anyone, almost anywhere on this big wonderful planet that we share with them. With few exceptions, they live in the shadows of nocturnal flight, with only the reported sightings being rare, not the nightly sorties of featherless wonders. They fly overhead every night.

Consider now what is written about suicide, and also about hope, in the book Searching for Ropens and Finding God:

After reading this book, if one person finds a reason to live and abandons thoughts of suicide, what a reward for all of us involved! This is not a textbook for preventing suicide, yet I suggest each of us can find ways to bring meaning into the lives of persons around us, motivating all of us to keep living and learning. [second paragraph of the introduction]

I remember an earlier shock from suicide. My sister Cindy came home from junior high upset about what happened with the science teacher. I tried to imagine what tragedy could have lead to such despair. He had appeared full of life. . . .

I would not mention any of that here, except to emphasize what we all need. It was far more than adventure, the hope that my associates and I shared, a hope that carried us to a remote tropical island to search for a living creature that almost all scientists had set aside as if dead for millions of years. How dearly we all need the mother of that little hope: a sense of a worthy purpose to live!

What did I hope to accomplish? What was that little hope that I shared with a few other Americans who were about to explore a remote tropical island? How dearly we need good news! The discovery of a living pterosaur—wonderful news to a zoologist—could spark somebody to abandon despair and grasp the hand of hope, to be sure. How worthy a purpose, even if only one human life is saved!

If anyone might be lifted out of some degree of depression, even if only with a little lifting, I would be willing to send that person a free copy of my book, as long as I have the ability to do so (my finances have been stretched, with very few sales of late). Please contact me.

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