Have you seen lately anyone with a semicolon drawn on their skin?
This is the story about a nonprofit movement started in April 2013, in honor to Amy Bleuel's father, who took his own life, and to give voice to her own fight with mental illness:
"The idea was to encourage anyone haunted by these demons to draw a semicolon on their body, photograph it, and share it to encourage love and to inspire."
Why a semicolon?
This 'movement' took the semicolon as symbol to the choice to continue life, because a semicolon is used when an author could have ended their sentence, but chose not to.
The semicolon drawn on someone's skin shows the support for those people who struggle with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide.
Needless to say that you don't need to draw whatever on your skin for supporting something like this. But it doesn't mean this is not a nice 'movement' anyway :)
So here is my support to all these people, in the shape of a semicolon's drawing on my wrist.
Never give up.
Thanks for reading.
Footnote. This blog post is also dedicated to A738a. She knows why.
Comments
ⓔⓡⓩⓐ, you said something very interesting: we never know if we would feel like that someday. Simple and very good reflection, thanks for your comment :)
setareh, yes. And also a way for letting other ppl know that we may not understand how they feel, but they are not alone anyway. Thanks for your comment :)
Ok Sulung, thanks for dropping by, but I prefer not to discuss about euthanasia in this blog, because as I said, this is not the topic of my blog and I wouldn't like people here mixing up things and confusing the message.
But I'll say one last thing, and it's to repeat again my plea for not to mix up 'suicide' and 'euthanasia'. If you can't understand why these words are very different and they can NOT even be used as synonyms, just check both terms in a dictionary and see it for yourself. The meaning of words is very important and we can't change it to our please (even more here, since this is a learning language's site)
Having said that, I thank you for your comment and interest in my blog.
Sweet noona^!
You're right, I think sometimes we (people) don't know how to react to things that we can't totally understand or that are not part of our lives. Sometimes it's difficult to see things in other people's perspectives, and we never know what anyone is going through... till it's too late.
Anyway, don't 'thank' me! Thank you! :)
Thanks for your comment!
Dear Mary, what a nice sentence for semicolon! So semicolon is a symbol for giving life another chance, for bringing back calmness to a stressed out life and a hope that there is light at the end of tunnel. Thanks for sharing it.
Thank you MARY, but I think we will still have different perception about euthanasia. I respect you for totally supporting and respecting euthanasia, yet I still consider it "suicide," and am against it. I will fully support whatever movement that prevents people from ending their own life.
Indeed, the message you convey here is so profound, and it's better not to divert people's attention from the essence of it.
AG, Nice :)
Thank you!!
Evangelina, Yes you're right and you said it very well: is not a visible disease, so they also have to endure the lack of society's understanding. And it's also very hard for the family and friends, because they usually don't know what to say or to do for trying to help. As you said, is a very sad and hard situation, and I wonder if sometimes it may be more easily to endure just having a little bit of empathy and understanding...
Thank you very much for your comment and nice words.
Afro, Yeah, euthanasia is also called 'mercy killing' or 'painless death'. but NEVER (and this is very important) NEVER is called 'suicide'. This is another very different topic.
Sorry if I look serious now! Thanks for your nice comment :)
To Mishaikh, Sulung and everybody reading this:
PLEASE, THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT:
DON'T CONFUSE OR MIX THIS MESSAGE: THE SEMICOLON PROJECT IS NOT ABOUT EUTHANASIA!!!!!!!!!
This 'Semicolon project' is about people who are dealing with depression or any other kind of mental illness; people who ARE NOT at the end of their lives but just struggling with an inner pain (not an terminal disease or incurable condition!!) and they just need professial help, support and understanding.
PLEASE DON'T CONFUSE SUICIDE WITH EUTHANASIA!
I totally support and respect euthanasia. People who decide to get a painless death ARE NOT MENTALLY ILL! They make that decision being in a healthy psychological condition. PLEASE, THIS DIFFERENCE IS VERY IMPORTANT!
People who decide having a painless death is because they are at the end of the road and they are just choosing how to end that road. They decide to do that because they LOVED their life. On the contrary, people who decide to commit suicide is because they are HATING theirs.
Is not the same leaving your life with love and peace in your heart than with hatred and grief.
Please, I beg not to misunderstand the message or confuse people about it...
Thank you and I'm sorry for this misunderstanding.
Your blog shows , you are full of life. Just great thinking. I like the way you described a semicolon. In reality I like semicolons. Anyway what Sulung said about ' euthanasia' is it something about mercy killing?
Thanks Mary for the blog, it is need of time, and let my say, "a good response to a recently posted blog about 'Mercy Killing."
I like the saying "A semicolon is used when an author could've chosen to end his sentence, but chose not to. The author is you and the sentence is your life.' The next line or phrase the author writes after the semicolon could beautify his sentence that will give more meaning not only to his writing but also to the readers' understanding.
It's the opposite of some people's "idea" in supporting euthanasia. Like the first clause in the saying "...when the author could've chosen to end his sentence (life)...," the euthanasia supporters believe that ending one own's life is a right and everyone is allowed to die with dignity. The semicolon movement says otherwise. There must be something more to do in life, and I think it's more respectful for those to choose to stay alive despite their hardship.
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