Asthmatic

On August 12, I realised that my asthma was an unwillingness to take life in. That I was alive nevertheless, and remained so, was, for me, one of the many paradoxes of existence, strewn across our path as unsolvable riddles, tough mind candy to chew on. I did not care for His jokes.

On August 13, I had decided to end my life. I instantly knew how I’d do it: I would jump of Jefferson bridge and enjoy the short flight. I calculated that I would fly for 6.34 seconds. In this time span, I wanted to see and experience everything as if for the first time. I was looking forward to the intensity of a prolonged moment of birthlike magic.

On August 14, at 14:45, after an incredibly good Pizza from Joe’s, an otherwise little noteworthy Italian hole in the wall on Grammer St, I let go off the railing and flew towards my death. Earlier, I had sat on these railings for about a minute. Not too long to develop deep fear and not too short, because I did not want to do anything in haste. This was too important.

All the while, though, if I’m honest, I hoped that something or someone would save me.

In fact, I did have my flight, and it was unbelievable. I could not possibly put it into words. You’ll have to go there yourself. The flight was 0.07 seconds longer than I had anticipated due to strong winds that created an updraft, which slowed me down. Those are details.

The interesting thing is that I never hit the surface but found myself instead eyes closed  in a fetal position on my bed at home. I don’t know what happened and I don’t care. I will not, I repeat, I will not do it again. I stopped having asthma attacks, too, and I’m going to get married tomorrow, thank you very much for your good wishes.

6 Comments

  • I love this! It’s so hopeful/hopeless where we want to know why but don’t care since we’re caught up in the mechanics of the plan. The ending is superb and comes unexpectedly. Really, I love this.

  • Hazar Worth wrote:

    For the one minute and seventeen seconds that it took me to read your piece Finnegan, I will experience the thirty-minutes allowing the power of this piece to penetrate me over and over and over again, like a sniper staring down his scope to the cross-hairs where my intended assignment has taken his last bite of food before taking him, and his body guards out in smooth fashion…

  • thanks susan and hazar, very much for your lovely words! traveling, i only look over my shoulder at the net and it was wonderful to read this!

  • Lorraine Joubert wrote:

    Finnegan, this is so good! Anyone who ever decided on self-destruction and then found him/herself victoriously living, will absolutely enjoy this!

  • [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Finnegan Flawnt, SecretPower. SecretPower said: RT @flawnt: what a wonderful life! – "asthmatic" by Flawnt at http://bit.ly/7uMsTq – if U like pls RT [...]

  • thanks lorraine – i am not personally someone who has ever come near self destruction, but i can see you might be right. “victoriously living” is so well put!

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