Suicide Prevention Seminar - smashing success! / The Little Foxes

What a victory, I said to myself as I was leaving the Huntingdon Valley Community Room for our 3 hour and 15 minute seminar. Perhaps I used the term 'victory' cuz it was D-Day, June 6, the invasion of Normandy. The nite before I watched the 1998 Spielberg film Saving Private Ryan, a movie I was finally ready to see. Most of it was filmed in - of all places - Ireland!

The first 24 minutes were voted 'best battle scenes ever' and forever changed the way war movies were made, according to Wikipedia. 30 to 40 amputees were hired to play extras. Underwater cameras caught injured American soldiers falling in the ocean and bleeding under the water. The carnage was immense and powerful. I couldn't take the final battle scene however cuz I'd had enough so I asked Scott to fill me in on it. They succeeded in their mission to Save Private Ryan.

Now, newer wars are being fought. Will there ever be an end to wars? Yes, when the last human being is wiped off the earth. Even animals are territorial and fight to the death.

Our first guest speaker at our Suicide Seminar was State Rep Tom Murt, Republican from the 152nd District of PA, who told about his deployment as an Army reservist to Iraq in 2003 at the age of 44. He was able physically to keep up with young men and women half his age and served as a counselor for his platoon in Takrit. He told our audience of about 30 that many of the men were so scared to fight that they tried to get out of it by thinking of harming themselves by having someone run over their foot with a Humvee.

He was critical of Army protocol which wouldn't allow one of his men to go home for the funeral of his mother or a man who would miss the birth of his first child. Murt personally assisted these men - and many others - to make certain their reasonable desires were carefully considered by top brass and put into effect.

Tony Salvatore whose 28-yr-old son died by suicide 13 years ago gave an impassioned presentation about the stigma of talking about suicide and how he, Tony, will always address any audience where he's asked to speak to help tear down these barriers.

And Dr. Pam London Barrett, aka The Singing Psychiatrist, provided ways to deal with suicidal thoughts such as developing spirituality (a higher power such as your children to keep you alive during these horrible thoughts) and the importance of TALKING about your thoughts, getting them out of your head and calling someone.

I could not have been more pleased with the program! I was busy that day from morning until evening. I barely had time to check the headlines on the NY Times, or check my daughter's blog, or my son/law's blog, or clean out my birdbath.

The hardest thing of all was THE SIGNAGE. I had no idea what to do. I called lots of people for ideas. Then I went down to Michael's and threw myself into the hands of the woman behind the counter. I actually felt guilty - no no Ruthie! - asking her to ACCOMPANY me to find posterboard on which to write the signs. I mean, here she was in the middle of conversation with someone, and I'm interrupting her. First she pointed, then I told her I checked there, and then I said, Could you possibly accompany me.

Whew! I selected hot pink posterboard that showed up a mile away so people got the clue to follow the hot pink color to the Community Room. A woman from New Directions helped me. I'm not allowed to say her name so I'll call her - hmmm - Jenny. That's a good name. The two of us drew ARROWS on the posterboard and wrote the word SEMINAR - about 12 different times.

While doing so I learned All About Jenny who has been on a zillion medications, none of which do any good, and in fact have instigated mania. I told her, You've been misdiagnosed. You do not have schizoaffective disorder (her first diagnosis) which was changed to bipolar. I said if I were a shrink I'd give you a V-Code. That's a lesser diagnosis. I'd say you had problems with obsessions for which you could indeed try an SSRI, which she had tried but it did no good, or else get some powerful psychotherapy to help you stop obsessing.

People like Jenny who receive a psychiatric diagnosis, and I told her this, are reluctant to give it up b/c they use it to define themselves and to blame their problems on their so-called illness. She will most likely not listen to me b/c I'm not a shrink but I must proffer an opinion.

After the program, Tom Murt offered to pay the bill when we went out afterward to a pizzeria. I always like to unwind after a program by going out and schmoozing. Well, the pizzeria was now off-limits cuz the owner told me we had to get in there by 4:45 so it wouldn't interfere with his patrons who had reservations, so we went instead to Cafe Preeya, Le Bec Fin of Montgomery County PA.

The prices were really high and I didn't wanna take advantage of Tom's good nature. I said to everyone we've gotta share entrees (which are always huge here in spendthrift America where money grows on trees) and that we couldn't order beverages or dessert or coffee, except if we pay for it individually.

We had a super-nice waiter who I'm gonna look up on Facebook and he brought us out some spring rolls courtesy of the House and we had a magnificent time. Judy said it was one of the best days of her life. Me too.

Now here's the clincher.

After we ate, I dropped off the Community Room Keys at the Lower Moreland Police Station. I LOVE COPS. Besides holding the power of life n death in their hands, they can also be really cute, at least the younger ones, who often train at the gym and have big biceps.

So I hop out of my car, jingling my keys and rookie cop Mike Donohue gets out of his car. He goes on duty at 7 pm and it's now 6:30. I ask him to please take the keys and make sure the Administration Bldg next door gets them.

Are you following me?

He runs in the department to check if he can do this (they did it for us 2 years ago when we gave another seminar) and then he came out and said Yes.

Mike, I said, I really appreciate this. I'm gonna tell you a little secret.

And I told him the secret. And I told him where. And I told him when.

Scott and I had found a den of bright orange foxes. We saw them from the distance. They looked like kitty cats except, unlike cats, they all looked the same. It was one of the greatest thrills of my life seeing those Little Foxes. How they shone in the sun! their coats were bright orange like tabby cats. They were playing with each other and rolling on the ground as all youngsters do.

When I got home from the Seminar, Scott asked me: How many times did you look at the foxes? I'll bet you looked at them five times, he said.

That's about right, I said.