Percy-L: Literary, Religious, Scientific, and Philosophical Discussion of Walker Percy

["Henry P. Mills" <wppdirector AT gmail.com>]

Dear Percy-L:

For your reading interest.

All best,

Henry Mills

Percy-L Administrator

-------Living as an Ex-Suicide

by JESSICA HOOTEN WILSON

JUNE 15, 2018

Opening paragraphs:

“The only cure for depression is suicide.” Walker Percy was not joking when he penned this line. The author himself was a survivor of suicide—though he did not attempt it. His grandfather and father both shot themselves at home; his mother either intentionally or not drove off of a bridge and drowned; and the first American Percy, Charles Percy, tied a kettle to his neck and also drowned.

Unlike his ancestors, Walker Percy lived a full life and died of prostate cancer at 74 years old. Why did they die but he lived? Because Percy chose to be a survivor, to find out not only why his father took his own life, but, as he put it, “to make damn sure it didn’t happen to [him].” This determination fueled his work. Percy wrote novel after novel trying to solve what Albert Camus called the only philosophical question, to be or not to be….

http://www.libertylawsite.org/2018/06/15/living-as-an-ex-suicide-walker-percy/

Keywords: Anthony Bourdain, anxiety, depression, Kate Spade, suicide, Walker Percy