One Million Strivers For Life
By Eduardo Vega
One million strivers for life, we need your help. We can make a difference. We can save thousands of lives. Not in ten years. Not in twenty. In this year.
People right now today are suffering, are wanting to die, are thinking death may be the best option or the most dignified way to find relief from that suffering.
But you know it is not. You know that there is a better life on the other side of suicidal despair. You know because you’ve been there. Because you have wanted to die, thought about dying, wished for death maybe even tried to die -
and now you know you are better for it. You have grown through it, you have found a better life, you have found yourway to meaning and purpose. You are a striver and your experience today can make a better life for many tomorrow.
A striver is someone who has been there, who has grappled with emotional pain, who has been through the despair and desolation of the spirit, and sheer fear that is accompanied by suicidal thoughts and feelings. You’ve experience strife, you’ve experienced struggle, and now you are thriving.
Ten million people just like you will struggle this year, a million may try suicide. Thousands will die.
But you can make a difference, you can make a change. You can come out and sound out and let our people know that they are not alone. They can get through the darkest times. They will find a life that is better, more meaningful more vital than anything they can imagine today.
Join us fellow strivers. Share your hard-won lessons. Add your voice infused with the real grit of growth to our chorus. So our brothers and sisters will hear a sound of hope that is founded in the dignity of pain. And that new sound will be heard in their darkness, will help them get through another moment, another day. Will turn their ears from the seductive silence of death and isolation and give them.
This is all we need to do. To stand up. To say yes, I have been there and I have got through and you will too.
Weaponizing Hope
Today we will hope to turn the tide on suicide death. But let’s be clear we are not here today to hold aloft a candle of hope. We are not here to issue platitudes about it, or engage our fellows with tepid notes that do not recognize the dignity of strife. We know that that kind of hope is not sufficient. It is not sufficient for people in their darkest moments to be on the receiving end of messages about hope, no matter how well intended. We are not here today as messengers. We are the message.
Today we are transforming hope into something new and powerful. A weapon against despair. We are turning our lives and our pain into this weapon. We are now together the solid form of hope. Something to stand on, something you can lean on. We are the strivers. We are real. We will never deny your pain or fear. We will never argue your reasons for dying.
Against the movement to death we will be your weapons. And we will fight with you and for you. And we will never ever give up on you. Because we’ve been there, and we’ve gotten through and, better than anyone we know that you can too.
