if you feel that the world is coming apart, crashing on you, just giving you no way out but suicide, and will try one last thing, like talking to someone who wants to talk you out of it?
Let me know, I'll try.
Or try the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
24 hours, 365 days a year.
Languages: English, Spanish. 800-273-8255
If you're not in the USA, my email is jbohjkl@yahoo.com
well said.
ReplyDeleteBack in some remote geologic epoch I was comfortably ensconced on a bar stool at the Wayside inn in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Having been there a while my cognitive faculties were on the verge of being tested, but I recall one moment with all clarity. There was a stockbroker there we knew as “Crash,” because he had crashed so many cars. Someone had asked Crash to describe the worst sex he had ever experienced. Without missing a beat and wearing a slight under-the-influence grin, Crash tilted his head a bit and slurred, “Shimply wonderful.” Life is like that, I believe. No matter how deep the shit, life is still good. I recall another occasion during a rather dark, troubled time in my own existence. I had driven to my kid’s house in Milwaukee one winter night and had called him to announce my ETA in five minutes. He told my 3 year old grandson, Devin. When I pulled up in front of their house I observed Devin standing on their couch, looking out the window, waiting for me. After a moment Dev recognized my car and began jumping up and down in anticipation of seeing me. The combined wealth of Gates, Bezos, Rockefeller and all the rest of them could not ever buy the joy I experienced at seeing my buddy jumping up and down, sending a clear message to me that my being mattered. It drove home the point of the great Frank Capra film, “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
ReplyDeleteWhich brings me to the point of Jesse’s request to recommend a documentary worthy of one’s time. If one were to Google “A Wing and a Prayer Al Schwimmer,” a number of results would appear including about a one hour film from PBS (and Vimeo) documenting the efforts of a ragtag group of otherwise unremarkable guys who literally shaped the course of history in the middle east in 1948/1949. This story is so improbable I would not believe it were it not for all the documentation available for anyone who cares to look. ‘Amazing’ is a word used so carelessly today that it scarcely has meaning. Let me assure the reader though this is an amazing story in the truest sense. David Ben-Gurion said it best when he declared that Al Schwimmer was the greatest gift America had ever given to Israel. Again, this story represents what the average guy or woman can mean in the larger scheme of things.
thanks!
DeleteI wish you were writing a blog, or magazine!
The film by Boaz Dvir tells the remarkable story of Al Schwimmer, the unassuming TWA flight engineer, who assembled a group of American pilots on a dangerous mission: acquire and smuggle airplanes and arms to rescue the new state of Israel, when it was attacked after announcing its statehood. After the war, this remarkable man developed Israel Aircraft Industries, IAI. David Ben Gurion referred to Al as “the greatest gift America gave Israel.”
Our one-hour presentation by Marvin Klemow worked for Israel Aircraft Industries (Now Israel Aerospace Industries) from 1969 to 2017. Hired by IAI’s founder and president, Al Schwimmer, he was proud to be one of the second group of “Al’s boys.” Marvin was responsible for IAI’s activities within the US Government, working with the highest government officials in both the USA and Israel. He was interviewed by Mike Wallace on 60 minutes and has testified before Congress. At a memorial service for Schwimmer, he said, “There are dreamers and visionaries. Visionaries make their dreams come true. Al Schwimmer was truly a visionary.”
https://www.pbs.org/video/wpbt2-presents-wing-and-prayer/
DeleteThank-you Jesse for your kind remarks. I was going to start a blog, but discovered you were already doing just what I had in mind. "What's the point," I thought. Regarding Schwimmer and his gang of trouble makers (all of them were on the FBI most wanted list), Boaz Dvir also has a hard copy book detailing Schwimmer's activity.
Delete