when it's time to go

spoiler alert: this may get depressing.
found on TriumphRat.net

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wc6...UIFCoPs9ZmIq6i2AvJrRFZTf1xbt_GorHZxrVJg7QSomI


Unknown guy and unknown story, but in the end that's what it's all about; creating your story and creating the guy (or gal) you want to be.

So, philosophical question: when it's time to go, and given your druthers, is it sliding into the grave headfirst having sung the song of the sausage creature or persisting and forever exploring till the sandman cometh?

I'll go first; I intend to keep on keeping on till I can't anymore-
I have the genetics that lead me to think I'll be around and viable for a long time- RTW at 80? Maybe. I'll give it a go when I get there.

Now that being said, Safety is third and I'll take chances having fun, you know the drill, and accidents do happen- I'm in a good head space, and don't go around "live fast, die young" for certain.

I have responsibilities to my kids- They'll be proper ADV'ers: already sowing the seeds: wheelies in the back yard when they could straddle the tank and they've got a JR50 vintage mini in the garage we'll fix up this winter- not bad for 5&7

I'm not afraid to die, I just don't want to be there when it happens.

I'm either living too fast,,

or dying too slow.

Is this an either/or question? I sort of expect to do both.

When singing the song of the sausage creature, I always expect to tell the story afterwards. Once in a while a little glitch (broken bones and orthopedic hardware in my case) gives one "pause".

The sandman might be resident in your right wrist, the gas pedal of the local garbage truck, the last whiskey sour your fellow commuter drank (or the cool sext message s/he was reading), the carcinogens you inadvertantly got exposed to, or the pesky DNA your parents gave you.

I don't live my life worrying over which one it's gonna be.

(Well, not too much, anyway. Healthy fear is just that.)

good answer,

when it becomes obvious I will not live much longer and cannot take care of myself, I will just ride away into the sunset by myself. Just like elephants do. well, they dont ride but they walk away from the rest of the herd to die. If they could ride, I bet they would ride away instead of walking.

Cliff's notes please.

One part of a video supposedly to his kids/wife before he kills himself. Not sure I am buying it. They post 1 part and THEN he has to ask the wife about the other two parts?

Cycle World just reprinted that HST story in their latest issue, "Better to be shot out of a cannon than squeezed out of a tube".

If I was going to kill myself, I wouldn't tell anyone. I'd let them think I died doing something brave like jumping out of an airplane: The Old Man just had to try sky diving before he was too old, but his shute didn't open. At least he died with his boots on..." Suicide (that your family knows about) leaves lots of hurt feelings.

I'll probably die doing motorcycle stunts at the rest home...

I guess the video is about him killing himself. Not going out in a blaze of glory or riding off into the sunset. I don't know the guy or his story but doing that when you have people who love you and depend on you is about as selfish and weak as it gets.

Tblume really didn’t ask about choosing suicide over living. His question was probably whether it was better to take some risk in life or try to avoid it altogether, or at least, that's what I read into it.

The young man in the video looks tormented to me, and is hinting to his children that he won’t be around for their future. It leads me to believe he has taken his own life, but the story hasn’t unfolded for the Youtube audience (ah, modern society).

On a beautiful Indian Summer day in October, 1988, my 28 year old brother spattered his brains across the bedroom wall of a rental apartment on lower Queen Anne hill, leaving the family to clean up the mess. At the time I was left to wonder why he didn’t at least wait until a slut gray morning in January to act against his demons. Then I could maybe relate, just a little, to the selfish idiot. That was where my head was at, then.

Now, I understand that suicide is escape from pain. We who are not in pain can’t relate. Some of us who are in pain can embrace it and live on, standing as a powerful example to others. Others are what an old friend of mine called “no load individuals”. They have so little strength that not only can they not carry others, they cannot carry themselves.

A young suicide is a tragedy. As we age, suicide gains some measure of heroism, to me. When the strong grow weak after a lifetime of carrying others, they often decide that they don’t want to be a burden. They don’t want to inflict the pain of loss that they themselves have felt in a lifetime of loss. It’s a false hope, the hope that our loss will be less if our loved ones don’t see us suffer, but it is a loving hope that I respect.

If I am granted a forewarning of the end, I hope I am able to handle it with grace, and act as an example to the ones that I care about who are left behind, for now.

I think twice about posting this. More than twice. But every year for 24 years now, this time of year makes me melancholy. I like people more now than I did then, and I try to be a little more understanding. Maybe this note is helpful to someone.

Thanks for the post WSR. My mom tried it twice before finally succumbing to a heart attack at age 39. Noone know the pain in another person. Geezuz.

Sorry link.

And thanks wsr, you've put a lot of perspective and thought into that, sorry for your loss as well.

My close experience with suicide was my ex-wife who talked about it to her shrink, who wisely walked her to the psych unit. She's much better now, a great mom to our boys, a friend to me, and I'm thankful it happened as and when it did.



Now. It sucked a bunch during.


Love you people, tis the season for depression and angst, watch out for yourselves and those you care about.

My friend quit paying on his house and I have tried so hard to get him to let me do this with the rc51 LOL!

Interesting timing on this thread:

I went to see my Dr for a hand/wrist problem that I figured was an old nasty mtn bike injury rearing it's arthritic head, so to speak. Well, after a couple of tests,(including an EMG) and visits to the neurologist, he calls me at home two weeks ago (as my one month old daughter is sleeping in my arms and my 23 month old daughter plays at my feet) and tells me I have Lou Gehrig's Disease (ALS).

ALS seems to take you in 2-5 years, and I've had the symptoms since last winter.

My plan, since you asked, is to go hard enough to have fun, but not push the envelope: I don't want to get inured and then have "down time" taking up what little time I have left.

The problem is choosing between time on the bikes and boats vs time holding and running around with my daughters and wife. I figured I've ridden and paddled most my life, so usually I'll be holding the little ones wishing they could actually remember it.

Sucks to be you!




and here I thought I was challenged by arthritic spinal degeneration,atrial fibrillation, and testicular cancer, with the standard prostate issues,,,heck,, I got nuthin on you bro!,,,go with it! (I can be flippant, because I have no children)
Yer born,,ya live, and ya die!,,make a mark!
Spend as much time as you can with your kids,,insert yourself into their total makeup, make them aware of your unfailing love!
we have nothing else to give in life.
Peace!

when it is time to go,,
I try to use the proper facility,,
but, at my age and my issues,when it is time,as in,there is no time!,pee NOW!
,I'll go beside my bike, in a parking lot,squatted down beside the bike, in Elko, Nevada! pretending to check the forward framus plate,,Hmmm,,seems to be leaking some fluid,,

pow. That is a punch in the face out of now where if I ever heard one. Spend the time with your family.