“The so-called ‘psychotically depressed’ person who tries to kill herself doesn’t do so out of quote ‘hopelessness’ or any abstract conviction that life’s assets and debits do not square. And surely not because death seems suddenly appealing. The person in whom Its invisible agony reaches a certain unendurable level will kill herself the same way a trapped person will eventually jump from the window of a burning high-rise. Make no mistake about people who leap from burning windows. Their terror of falling from a great height is still just as great as it would be for you or me standing speculatively at the same window just checking out the view; i.e. the fear of falling remains a constant. The variable here is the other terror, the fire’s flames: when the flames get close enough, falling to death becomes the slightly less terrible of two terrors. It’s not desiring the fall; it’s terror of the flames. And yet nobody down on the sidewalk, looking up and yelling ‘Don’t!’ and ‘Hang on!’, can understand the jump. Not really. You’d have to have personally been trapped and felt flames to really understand a terror way beyond falling.”
―
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“Every angel is terrifying.”
― Duino Elegies
― Duino Elegies
“The thought of suicide is a great consolation: by means of it one gets through many a dark night.”
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“God cannot take sides; for He is in all of us. We are all a part of Him, and when we try to destroy Him, we destroy ourselves.”
― The Sands of Time
― The Sands of Time
Challenge Corner
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There is at least one reading challenge within the group per month as well as quarterly reading challenges, buddy reads, book of the month group discu ...more
Gabrielle’s 2024 Year in Books
Take a look at Gabrielle’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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