Editor/ Publisher

A month ago, I was gung ho about increasing the dialogue about death by suicide during September, which is also Suicide Prevention Awareness month.

We came out of the gate hot with my commentary, followed by a story about local efforts the next week.

Then, life happened. I have made an effort to share on this editorial page additional commentaries and information about suicide prevention, but the news stories I intended to write haven’t yet come to fruition.

Does this make me a failure?

I’m going to say no. It would be easy to let negative self-talk take over and lead me down a spiral. Yet, life went from busy to intense in the blink of an eye.

The irony is that I have most of the interviews completed for the stories. I simply haven’t had the time to sit and assemble the stories in a cogent manner.

Several years ago I wrote a series for the Catholic paper about suicide, its aftermath and its survivors. While I won several awards for the pieces, they weren’t the reason I broached the topic. It is because I knew the conversation needed to begin, and I wanted to start it.

Back to this year and this month’s efforts to have compassionate conversations about a difficult topic.

As September comes to a close, I can have one of two reactions to how it’s gone. I can hang my head, call it defeat and say “next year,” or I can shrug my shoulders and keep moving forward. I choose to keep moving forward. After all, depression isn’t a one-month issue. We are entering fall, and as the days get shorter, seasonal depression can kick in.

Difficult topics shouldn’t be limited to one day, week or month. We should be willing to talk about them yearround, which is what I’m choosing to do.

This means our readers will see stories in the coming weeks about mental health and the myriad of support options in our community. It is because I choose to continue the efforts to discuss mental health, even though September will be over.

One of my hobbies is distance bicycling. I like to hop on my two wheels and experience the openness that rural Kansas has to offer.

Two years ago, I set off with a group of about 30 friends with the goal of biking from the Oklahoma border to the Nebraska border in three days. I was doing pretty well until day two. The road was flat, and I wasn’t mentally or emotionally prepared to ride 50 miles of flat roads.

At lunch, I hopped a ride to the next stop. This choice meant I would not complete my goal of 100 miles into Salina. Did it mean I was a failure? Some would say that, but I opted to give myself a break. I did the best I could under the circumstances and had to adjust my expectations based on the present.

This is how I choose to approach mental health stories. I did the best I could in September, and I am adjusting my expectations. We will continue to move forward and tell the stories that need to be told.

Bonar is the editor/publisher of the I-R and can be reached at kbonar@indyrepnews. com.