Taking Our Life: Suicide, Ecocide, and Daring to Live

November 13, 2017 Fredric Matteson | CCT Director & Founder

by Fredric Matteson - CCT Founder

I recently learned of the production of author Shoshona Alexander's play, Taking Our Life. I'm deeply honored by Shoshona's inclusion of a scene and a song ("Crisis of Identity") that borrow directly from my Contextual-Conceptual Therapy material.

Shoshona, who lost her sister, Carol, to suicide, has woven her sister's presence into the fabric of the play. The play also addresses ecocide, and some of our communities most vulnerable to suicide, incorporating the stories of Chad, a homeless veteran, and Lily, the Native American woman who answers the phone when Chad calls into a suicide hotline.

Shoshana has helped ghost-write numerous Buddhist-inspired tomes - including my sister Adelaide Donnelley's Sorrow Mountain, my own forthcoming (still in process) Suicide Is Not About Killing Yourself, and Sharon Salazberg's LovingKindness.

Go to www.gofundme.com/launching-my-new-play to donate! Taking Our Life is a new play that deals with themes of suicide and ecocide, and posits a connection between them. The play asks us to take our life and live it, to do what we are each uniquely called to do, for the sake of Life itself.

For those who might be interested, I thought I would share the above preview with you. Also for those of you following the continued new developments of CCT (www.SuicideTherapy.com) and for those of you in the Ashland, Oregon area where the debut of the play is upcoming on November 17, 18, 19. If you're interested in attending and/or supporting the play, please visit takingourlife.com for more information.