In 1912, a tall, young, broad-shouldered Australian scientist, Dr. Douglas Mawson, along with two companions, Dr. Xavier Mertz and Lieutenant Belgrave Ninnis, embarked on a 500 kilometre scientific expedition across the Antarctic. What would begin as a trek for research would conclude as a terrifying fight for life.

Sir Douglas Mawson

Ninnis, an Englishman in his twenties would perish impaled on teeth of ice down a 100 metre crevasse after the weight of his sled cracked through a sheet of ice, and fell with the food supplies; Mertz, a Swiss Olympian, was to die of an overdose of Vitamin A, having consumed the only food remaining to the explorers, husky meat. Alone, in temperatures of 60 degrees below zero, with winds of over 100 kilometres an hour pounding upon him, Douglas Mawson faced his greatest challenge - the fight for his very life. An excellent sportsman as well as outstanding academic, Mawson had been accustomed to challenges on the cricket and rugby fields, as well as at the examination bench - but here was something quite radically different. With constant diarrhoea, skin flaking from his feet, hands, scalp and scrotum due to Vitamin toxicity, Mawson literally dragged himself some 180 kilometres to base camp. At one point he fell through a crevasse only to find that his sled caught the lip of the Antartcic surface.

As Mawson recollected: "A few minutes later I was dangling on end of rope in crevasse, sledge creeping to mouth. I had time to say to myself 'So this is the end', expecting every moment the sledge to crash on my head and both of us to go to the bottom unseen below. Then I thought of the food left uneaten in the sledge - and as the sledge stopped without coming down, I thought of Providence again giving me a chance … I made a great struggle, half getting out, then slipping back several times, but at last just did it". (Jacka & Jacka, 1988, Mawson Antarctic Diaries, p. 161) On eventually arriving, Mawson had lost nearly half his body weight, his face was covered by a thick mask of ice, and as he told later: "I had intended to push on to the utmost in the hope of reaching a point where my remains would be likely to be found by a relief expedition, but I had always hoped against hope for more". (Ibid, p. 172)

	There are many sites on the net discussing suicide in general and youth suicide in particularl. The one above is from the Centre for Adolescent Health at the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne.

Mawson's epic story of survival can be contrasted with today's tragic loss of a will to live by so many of his fellow-country men and women, evident in spiralling youth suicide statistics. An Australian government report of 1997, Youth Suicide in Australia, revealed that world-wide, Australia ranks fifth in youth suicide fatalities, only surpassed by: New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, and Canada.

What is most frightening is that each of these nations has very high material standards of living, far higher on average than Douglas Mawson experienced when near death in Antarctica. Each of these said nations at the end of the last millennium was placed on the short list of the best places in the world to live. Evidently, material standards of living and wealth has little to do with spiritual resilience — the desire to live one's life despite seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

The researchers concluded in 1997 that aside from causes related to drug abuse: "A further theme appearing in much of the literature is the influence of the societal and cultural framework on coping skills and resilience at the individual level. Reporting on the youth suicide problem in New Zealand, Taylor (1990) offers this perspective: 'The reality is that many young people do have trouble in making the psychosocial adjustment of adolescence. Understandably, the very high rates of youth unemployment, the fear of joblessness, and the prevailing materialistic, worldly values that equate individual success with wealth, good looks and power make many young people feel quite worthless and cast out by society. Fatalistic attitudes are found more and more among young people … Broken relationships, unhappy family backgrounds, confusion of cultural identity, or other influences can destabilise many young people, then their anxieties can become overwhelming'." (Australian Government, Department of Health and Ageing, 1997, Youth Suicide in Australia, p.28)

What is critical for young people to understand is that there is more to life than the material, and that each individual has been created by a God who loves them for the worth of their very selves — body and spirit. It is no accident that the rise in suicide from the mid-1960's to the present day accompanied the revolution against religion; for without God one is alone, and essentially responsible only to oneself.

Mawson in the Antarctic desert although devoid of human companionship, having witnessed two companions die in horrendous circumstances, had "trust in Providence", that is, he understood that his life was precious, and had meaning because God could penetrate into his ordeal, into his hopes, into his suffering (Jacka & Jacka, 1988, Mawson Antarctic Diaries, p. 161). Dag Hammarskjöld would later write that in life, "only he who keeps his eye fixed on the far horizon will find his right road". The sufferings that we must contend with each day, are nought in comparison to the end-point of our very lives.

Irrespective of the personal cost to family and friends, there is a societal cost involved when suicide is committed, the loss to the broader community of skills and potential. Australia would have been far the poorer had Mawson decided to end his life on the icy plains, and the entire world had Goethe and Lincoln acted upon their darkest thoughts as youths. Suicide is considered by the Catholic Church as a matter of immense gravity, for the Church perceives this to be the quintessential act of self-hatred; a tragic act, whereby a person believes they have no great obligation to neighbour, no grateful obligation to God, no higher obligation to self. Life is a mixture of joy and suffering, perhaps an imbalanced mix, but life is precious, and as St. Augustine of Hippo teaches, there is no depth of suffering that we may experience that God has not been through Christ. As humans we feel pain and suffer, but as Christians we should fight despair by hope, and recall God's promise: "Before I formed you in the belly I knew you, and before you came forth out of the womb I sanctified you". (Jeremiah 1: 5, The New Jerusalem Bible)

Sir Edward "Weary" Dunlop

In such a light in 1942, Dr. Edward Dunlop was taken as a prisoner by the Japanese Imperial Forces. Over a period of two years, Dunlop, a Rhodes Scholar and Rugby Union International, was beaten, tortured and starved alongside his many young Australian compatriots. In the heat, humidity and humility of one of the worst prisoner of war camps of World War II, Dunlop ministered to men, with rustic tools, attempting to save lives; amputating as best he could with kitchen utensils. Himself ill, Dunlop chose to live, not because living was easy, but because in life, there is hope, and one can give hope by the manner by which one lives. In his eyes, others took courage, in his eyes, the faint spirit which lay in the hearts of other prisoners, burned anew. When years later Weary Dunlop decided to publish his memoirs, he dedicated his text in the following manner: "To those prisoners-of-war of several nations whose courage and fortitude uplifted me during dark days. The many dead are hallowed in my memory and the friendship of those living is one of life's precious gifts. I pray that 'they shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them nor any heat'." (The Book of Revelations 7: 16)

Perhaps Saint John of the Cross offers the best remedy for those despairing in life: "Live in the world as if only God and your soul were in it; then your heart will never be made captive by any earthly thing"; nor will you give up your life for anything, which is not of God. Each of us has been given one life, distinct from all others, unique to all of creation; we are asked by God simply to choose, and use, and not to abuse this gift. (cf: Deuteronomy 30: 19)

IMAGE SOURCES: Click on the other images for the original source.

©2007 Dr Andrew Thomas Kania

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