The headline in the paper read, “Man kills himself over immensity of life.” That got me to thinking, is suicide life’s emergency escape valve? Is offing ourselves life’s control-alt-delete? Our escape from an impossible situation? Our negation of an unsolvable dilemma? Or, as this man has posited, is suicide simply a release from a universe that offers us infinite choices. Can one be overwhelmed by the simple fact that at any moment any number of people could be thinking, reflecting, or talking about anything. For a species that chose the tree of knowledge, we are tortured by the infinite nature of thought. Our man in the headlines is no madman; he is a prophet, a pioneer. He has discovered the loophole in the unwinnable game of life. The game of discovery that has consumed humanity for the past 6000 years is a no win scenario. One day, when we have discovered every scientific advancement, every mathematical achievement, every literary masterpiece, we shall become homo philosopher, a species of thinkers that will fill the world with thought. Even then life’s body of knowledge will not be exhausted, will not be emptied. It will continuously be filled from every angle with more intensity than ever. Perhaps this is the human condition, the most beautiful part of our lives, the immensity of knowledge, is also the most frustrating. We are always reaching for something unachievable. Perhaps that headline would better read, “Man kills himself over impossibility of human dream,” after all, he wouldn’t be the first.
