Statistics, Rabbits, Chickens, Suicide, and Books
Statistics and suicide, I hate
Rabbits, chickens, and books, I love
I am obsessed with statistics and spend most of the time online searching and perusing statistical facts on the trustworthy websites of global bodies. But statistics have a funny side to it and methinks no one has better realized than Benjamin Disraeli who jotted down that;
“There are three types of lies; lies, damn lies, and statistics”
And the Russian great Joseph Stalin who fathered the October revolution once quipped that;
“A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic”
But for a researcher, these quotes are statistically non-significant and need to be backed by statistical data. Thus Karl Pearson the great English mathematician has realized statistics as
‘Statistics is the grammar of Science.’
Now this preamble of my article may seem awkward and irrelevant to the reader as I suddenly venture into an egregious social fact of suicide. After running errands for a very ungrateful person the whole day, at last, I found respite with my work colleague in his cozy study. Being an introvert and a lover of solitude, my colleague is a true bibliophile. I often relate to him the famous quote of Friedrich Nietzsche;
“He who delights in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.”
He often replies with a forgiving smile. He has this habit of summarizing what he had read to me and shares the precious clippings of his readings with me. On this particular day, I found him down-spirited and as gloomy as the day itself was. Surprisingly, I found him somewhat extroverted and more generous with uttering boring and philosophical rhetoric. The course of time I spent with him, he was cursing life; life has lost its vigour, life has no meaning, I am feeling useless and a family parasite, books are boring and full of lies, and death is more interesting than life. I was just dumbfounded, transfixed and felt a strange eeriness of death in the air. I did not know what to do and with a deft of impulsiveness I hugged him and for a while busted the worst mood I had ever experienced. Suddenly he began to sob like a child and cried profusely as if tears were gushing from a noisy torrent. This sudden outburst of tears made him to flush away formidable amounts of negative thoughts from his mind and he came back to his senses for a while. Then I took him for a stroll along the gushing stream and told him about the successful breeding of the English Angora rabbit pairs I had imported from Indonesia. I took him to the barn and showed him dozens of cute fluffy rabbits munching on leafy greens. Besides I showed him rare imported breads of chickens like; Ayam Cemani, Light Sussex and the Shamos.
He got very excited and relieved and on the way back home he related some verses from the famous poem Caged Bird by Maya Angelou.
A free bird leaps
On the back of the wind
And floats downstream
Till the current ends
And dips his wing
In the orange sun rays
And dares to claim the sky.
But a bird that stalks
Down his narrow cage
Can seldom see through
His bars of rage
His wings are clipped and
His feet are tied
So he opens his throat to sing.
The caged bird sings
With a fearful trill
Of things unknown
But longed for still
And his tune is heard
On the distant hill
For the caged bird
Sings of freedom.
Maya Angelou, “Caged Bird” from Shaker, Why Don’t You Sing? Copyright © 1983 by Maya Angelou. Used by permission of Random House, an imprint and division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.
Source: The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou (Random House Inc., 1994)
And as I found him in good spirits I related to him a couplet from the famous poem ‘Dreams’ by Longsten Hughes.
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged
Bird that cannot fly
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow
Langston Hughes, “Dreams” from The Collected Works of Langston Hughes. Copyright © 2002 by Langston Hughes. Reprinted by permission of Harold Ober Associates, Inc.
He thanked me for restoring his spirits and we bid farewell to each other. I returned to home and found a cozy nest in my study for brooding upon the events of the day. The whole night seemed to be repeating itself with the same hideous flashbacks of the evening and other events of the day seemed trivial and insignificant. While I was pondering on the mental trauma of my friend, an idea struck me about the emergency procedures one had to take when dealing with a person occupied with suicidal thoughts. I googled about the emergency procedures and found some quick and detailed helpful tips. As it is a very common habit of mine and many others to drift from one page to another I accidentally landed on a page displaying statistics about the worldwide suicide occurrences. And again, no escape from statistics and truly speaking statistics are always significant for the things you hate the most. World population review, a global organization has listed top ten countries with highest suicide rate (suicide per 100k) for the year 2019.
Lesotho (72.4)
Guyana (40.3)
Eswatini (29.4)
South Korea (28.6)
Kiribati (28.3)
Federate States of Micronesia (28.2)
Lithuania (26.1)
Suriname (25.4)
Russia (25.1)
South Africa (23.5)
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/suicide-rate-by-country
Besides depression as the most important factor some other factors that make individuals to consider suicide as a way out are: physical circumstances, academic performance, psychiatric issues, economic problems and lack of satisfaction. Truly these are gross issues that need to be addressed by a professional therapist or a doctor who specializes in following the standard procedures and protocols for prevention of suicidal attempts. But there is always a layman’s and freestyle hand guide and panaceas to daily life problems no matter how serious they are. I want to list some phenomenal books that can significantly change one’s life.
1. Read 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People By Steven Covey
This book is a kind of life changer and its effectiveness as a life changer has been consolidated by the thousands of life changing stories around the world. This is the sole reason that it has occupied personal shelves to that of public libraries all around the world. This book is a must read and a true eye opener and a panacea to a plethora of daily life problems.
2. Read The Power Of Your Subconscious Mind By Joseph Murphy
This is a kind of book that helps you understand how the correspondence between the conscious and subconscious world takes place. It deliberates on the process of how to access the enormous resourcefulness of the subconscious of mind. It shows the simple pathways for exploring the self-healing program that your subconscious holds. Just keep your eyes close while in a relax mood and near drowsiness you can find the entrance of the subconscious wide open like a horizon. Once you enter that golden gate and ask for the wish you want so badly to be granted, you are awarded in a split of a second.
3. Read The 40 Rules of Love by Elif Shafak
When it comes to spirituality and the abode of divinity, Rumi’s Mathnawi is the textbook of spiritual curriculum. In other words, it is the coding language without which you cannot access the world of spirituality. Although the significance of Rumi’s Mathnawi is unavoidable still it is advised for one to go through the 40 rules of love by Elif Shafak. With its unique style the book introduces its reader to the unexplored territory of spirituality via the conduit of love. One understands the magnificence of spirituality by diving into the relation between Shams Tabriz and Mulana Rum who perfected the art of Sufism.
