Challenge Literature Fellowship - AustraliaTips for Life
By Alan Bailey
THERE are many definitions of optimists and pessimists. I heard that an optimist is a man who, having fallen off a 20 storey building, was heard to say as he passed the window of the second level, “I’m OK so far.” A pessimist is a man who wears a belt, and braces too.
So the optimist is the person who looks on the bright side, feeling that better things are up ahead. The pessimist is afraid that things will turn out badly.
Tips for Life
by Alan Bailey
Youth suicide appears to be dropping, but self-harm is taking over.
Most of us simply can’t keep abreast of all that is happening around the world. News spreads rapidly and much of it is hard to come to terms with, so we tend to give up. We just do our best to survive. That’s the formula these days.
But have you noted this? Trends show that world-wide, young people are losing their sense of the worth of life. Suicide is still chillingly common, but now self-harm is taking over. In numbers of countries, those in teen years in particular, are being driven to attack their own bodies. They deliberately harm themselves out of frustration, anger, sadness or just to get attention.