Foolish or Not?

Today, I woke up to multiple messages on my phone. I had woken up, and grabbed my phone to check the time when I saw all the whatsapp messages flood in. 

Curious, and dismissing the Voice that urged me to pray and study my bible first, I opened Whatsapp to see my classmates arguing (as usual – I mean, they are lawyers to be. What better way is there to prove the worth of 5 years in school and 1 forthcoming year in Law School?). 

I scrolled up to the source of the argument and saw that one of us had put up information about a young man who finished from Law School with 4As and 1D and was asked to come and re-sit the course he had failed in. 

The grading system so brazenly employed by law school is overtly to prevent too many people from becoming lawyers. Apparently, that sky is too small for all birds to fly.

It is not a hidden fact that the fact that you did fantastically well during your LLB program means that you’ll also clean out Law School. You are graded overall with your lowest grade and course retakes or re-sits sound like merciful judgment when compared to outright failure. 

You don’t believe? 

Great. Now that I have given that background information, let’s move to the argument of the day. 

Now, the young man who had made a first class in the university and had in fact made 4As but 1 D in law school and was therefore asked to come back to retake the paper he failed. 

Long and short? He committed suicide. 

Majority of my classmates were of the opinion that he was foolish while the minority believed that calling a suicide victim foolish was insensitive to the pain and depression the person underwent. The latter group urged the former to consider that the full story of the victim was not revealed and so judgements should not be passed.

I asked myself what my stand was on the whole matter and here’s what I feel:

The act of suicide for whatever reason is always a foolish act. It is foolish in the sense that it isn’t the best and most effective solution to any problem. Maybe if we cannot say that suicide is a smart way out, then we must say that it is a foolish way out. 

Although I admit that calling it foolish seems too harsh and insensitive, it is the hard truth. 

Now, I do not discard the fragility of the mind of the victims, neither do I render to nonexistence the reality of the circumstances that lead to them making such a decision. But I do not also agree to pick up from where they left ; petting their problems, exalting their pain, and allowing life take from them more than it gives. 

As a person who has survived the floggings of depression , I cannot say that a person who commits suicide is merely foolish and lackng brains- but I can boldly say that the act of suicide is a foolish act; never solving, only compounding.

One can be so smart and yet do something so foolish. And we can say that someone has done something foolish without necessarily rubbishing their intellectual abilities. This is the idea that underlies correcting another human. The only difference here with suicide is that it does not correct; it only destroys. 
I sympathise greatly with the family of the young man who committed suicde because of a D (or for whatever other reason informing his tenebrous act); for the grieve of death is not for the dead but for the living (although we are instructed to let the dead bury the dead).
I however stand not to sympathise with suicide as an act. Depression and suicide have far too long eaten deep into the souls of men that they must not be treated as our kind visitors; of whom we must speak no wrong. 

Suicide is a foolish act. Depression is evil. 

Please get mature help if you’re having any of these terrible thoughts. Please.

I'd love to hear your thoughts!

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