Linkin Park Singer Chester Bennington committed suicide yesterday. One day you're listening to them; the next day they're tragically gone.

Linkin Park Singer Chester Bennington committed suicide yesterday. Although I didn't know him, I heard his music and I feel the loss. You never know when someone is making one last effort to overcome negative thinking, negative influences or negative habits. You never know how close they are to falling off a cliff, drenched in hopelessness. One day you're listening to them speak or perform, and the next day they're tragically gone. 

I've heard the music of Linkin Park, saw a performance online. But somebody important to Chester Bennington had committed suicide in May, 2017. Now it's only late July 2017 and the surviving best friend is also dead. You'd think someone would have suspected that this first tragic event might trigger a state of depression for a survivor. We continually miss the signs that all is not well with someone we know and love. We smile and watch as they plunge deeper into hopelessness.

A colleague of mine committed suicide a year after my friend attempted a murder-suicide. The suicide was not successful. For a few years, I blamed myself, thinking surely there was something I could have done. My friend had vowed to come from the Midwest to the Northeast just to visit me and my family. Two weeks prior to her visit, I got the tragic news. She had attempted but failed to commit suicide after successfully murdering her son. 

Hearing the news, all I could feel was anger and betrayal that she misrepresented her thoughts and feelings without saying a word. Then I felt sadness and guilt that I didn't detect a problem, didn't notice a change in her disposition, didn't sense that something was wrong. I could have volunteered to keep her son, would have kept him as long as she needed. As for my colleague, we said goodbye in June, at semester's end. By October he had completed a suicide.

I think of all of the people we have lost in our society--in plain sight. My quesion is always the same: How do they manage to complete a suicide with so many people around them, looking after their every need? 

So we've lost another one at age 41. It's such a tragic thing to know that people can feel they have outlived their usefulness. That's got to be what happens because when we feel useful, wanted, needed and appreciated, we hold on to those positive feelings. We receive validation and support. We feel connected to a higher purpose in life. I'm often at a loss for words when someone commits suicide. All I can do is pray for their peace and tranquility.  Chester Bennington, may he R.I.P.

Linkin Park Singer Chester Bennington Dead, Commits Suicide by Hanging (UPDATE) http://www.tmz.com/2017/07/20/linkin-park-singer-chester-bennington-dead-commits-suicide/ via @TMZ