Way to Go

National Geographic has a really depressing chart in their August 2006 issue, which is also depressingly covered, "No End in Sight - KILLER HURRICANES." The chart shows what activities have the greatest chance of killing someone. The big ones are obviously heart disease (1 in 5), cancer (1 in 7), and stroke (1 in 24). Next up? Motor vehicle accident. 1 in 84 Americans will die in a car accident. The next one I found really disturbing - suicide. 1 in 119 Americans will commit suicide. It seems strange that the odds of suicide is so high. Apparently more Americans will kill themselves than they will be killed, say, by a gun assault (1 in 314) or in a pedestrian accident (1 in 626). Very sad.

Of course, then I saw this little gem of a statistic: Odds of dying, any cause. 1 in 1 (100%). Well. I know I'm going to die eventually, but do I really have to have it pointed out to me like that while I am trying to eat toast? Sheesh! It kind of made me think about suicide myself. I mean, if I'm going to die anyway, I might as well die before I have to take the stupid bar exam. Thanks, National Geographic.