A Researcher Studied The Most Common Last Words Of Suicidal Men
And it says a lot about how we indoctrinate men as providers.
*The following contains discussions of suicide and may be triggering to suicide survivors or anyone bereaved by suicide.
When Wellington Lytle checked into a Milwaukee hotel after the 1929 stock market crash, he was down to his last four cents and emptied of hope.
But before he put a revolver to his head, he took out a pen and left the following note:
“My body should go to science, my soul to [Secretary of Treasury] Andrew W. Mellon, and sympathy to my creditors.”
Even in his last moments, Lytle wanted his corporeal remains and soul utilized by the world he was leaving. A century later, men still carry this burden — their self-worth is tied to their usefulness.
Today we call these utilitarian men "good providers." And while society ties itself in knots, defining what it means to be a provider, for many men, it comes down to feeling useful.
Unfortunately, when men are asked to lie down in this Procrustean bed, many respond in one of two dangerous ways.
A. They work themselves to death, clearing hurdle after hurdle in a relentless pursuit of some bogus…
