This will be a duplicate post for those who follow both my blogs, but I felt it important enough to post in both places...
I need to get back on the blogging train, as I've been slacking in both blogging and blog reading duties.
By way of update... I ran my first 50k race last week. I got done almost 2 hours before I thought I would. It was a great experience, almost spiritual in a way. At one point, I wanted to take a picture (I live tweeted the experience) and tweet it with the simple caption of OMG!! But I was worried that people might think I was in trouble and not simply in total awe at the wonder of the planet on which we live.
Busy week, but it culminated in getting together with a childhood friend. We haven't seen each other since we were 15 and we've had interesting experiences since. It was a great reunion - THANK YOU FACEBOOK! And I was left with a few vivid impressions, which I may blog about later this week.
So that meeting happened yesterday evening. I just found out though, that at the same time, another friend of mine was involved in an incident. Without sharing too many details, after experiencing some marital problems, he opted yesterday to leave this life. In the process of taking his life, he destroyed his families home, as well as the home next door. Thankfully police were able to get his wife, 5 kids and 2 bishops out of the home prior to the explosions. I found out about this an hour ago, and I'm still reeling from the shock. I'm not going to blame his death and the destruction involved on anyone but himself. But with that said, I think religion had a huge role to play in contributing to his mental state which ultimately led to his untimely demise.
It's been an awesome weekend, but just recently it too a morbid turn.
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ReplyDeleteI knew him really well, although we haven't been in touch as much since he moved down your way.
ReplyDeleteIt was kind of an interesting story... He was a pretty wild teenager, got straightened up and went on a mission. While on the mission, he trained a guy, whose sister had just got knocked up by a gang member.
He ended up writing her a letter telling her not to marry the guy, and that if she waited, he'd marry her when he got home and make sure she got to go through the temple and such.
He was that kind of guy - he would do anything for anyone, but unfortunately I wonder if starting a marriage out that way might have been a problem...
Anyway, they went through the temple, and he took really good care of her and her extended family too. They had some rocky stuff happen - I got to hear about her from him, and my wife heard about him from her, but they seemed to be working through it.
They moved to Texas to try and start anew, and again seemed to be doing quite well - at least that was the impression I got. He's a bit of a workaholic, but absolutely adored his kids.
Anyway, I guess they were still having problems though, and she filed for divorce earlier this year. It got finalized the morning of his suicide.
Having communicated briefly with his now ex-wife, it sounds like some of the story got twisted. According to her, the kids were never in the house, and it was never a hostage situation or anything like that. But she isn't ready to share her side of how it all happened.
I suspect that from his perspective, he was losing his family, and as a man who took everything in the Church extremely literally (no birth control and stuff like that), I think he thought that was the end for him. I'm sure there were other factors too.
Great guy, the kind who would do anything for you, and always extremely cheerful and happy... I wonder though if perhaps the smile wasn't just him over compensating for depression or something similar.
Of course all that said, suicide is an inherently selfish act, and while it's unclear if his actions caused the explosion as well, if he was the cause of that, taking away everything his family owned and the family next store, was a pretty scummy thing to do.
Anyway - still fighting off a lot of mixed emotions about the whole incident. Just tragic incident for all involved.