I once heard somebody on a podcast tell stories about the time he spent in a small African colony. While he had many wild adventures to speak of, a small portion of his storytelling caught my attention. It should come as no surprise that much of what he discussed was based upon the cultural differences between the African colony and the culture of the Western world. The differences were, and are, endless. Yet I could get over one of the single differences he brought to light. He said that something the colony simply could not understand about our culture, was the concept of suicide. They could not wrap their brains about why somebody would intentionally end their own life. This was something that just did not exist within their own culture. It was so nonexistent that they had never even heard of somebody doing it. This fascinated me.

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If you were to ask somebody from a Western culture why someone might commit suicide, they would have no problem answering. They had mental health issues, they had some awful luck in their life, traumatic event, etc, etc. A variety of reasons all boiling down to that the person did consider life worth living anymore. But the story of the African colony got me thinking. It is a fair assumption that a colony who had never heard of suicide was likely cut off from the rest of the world. This also likely means that they have not been exposed to any of the technological , or other, advancements we have made in Western society. You would assume that this means their quality of life is lesser, right? This lack of technological advancements likely coincides with a higher mortality rate, lower life expectancy, worse living conditions, etc. All in all, a lower quality of life (at least in the sense I am discussing).

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But this begs the question, why, in a culture with a lower quality of life, has not even one person ever commited suicide? Does this mean that the reason for suicide cannot simply be boiled down to living a low quality life? I believe so. I believe that the reason behind most, if not all, suicides is that the person committing it has lost their answer to why. Why should I continue living this life? If you cannot think of an answer to that question then who can blame you for taking your own life. It must be a miserable existence. This is the level of value that a place upon answering why. It is the antithesis to misery. It is a reason to keep going. It is a reason to live.