9/11: The Falling Man

This documentary is really very hard to watch. Underlying the obvious tragedy that is/was 9/11, examining our relationship with death and the stigma that is placed on people who make a decision to take their own life says a lot about our discomfort with self-determination. Not just the ability to decide how we live but how we die and not to be judged for either. While the conclusion of the documentary is that it’s not important to know who he is, but that the picture is a perfect representation of what happened that day ... I see it differently, in that not knowing who the person is allows us to accept that unless and until we are in these impossible situations where one is forced to deal with their own mortality, no one, not even God, has a right to judge the decision. And for me, this includes suicide that is more likely provoked by mental health scenarios. I’m not sure what I would have done but one thing I can imagine is that I would have been terrified and all options would have been on the table between fight or flight.