thoughts behind quotes of the day

I have been using Shneidman’s quotes for the Quote a Day thingy. I wanted to let the world know how much he means to me so each day, if I remember, I will quote something from his books. I don’t have his exhaustive library but I have some.

Shneidman was a great man. He called me out of the blue one day while I was at work. I didn’t recognize the number so I didn’t answer it. He left a voicemail saying to call him soon. But the trouble was I had an appointment with my therapist around the time he called. I called him later that evening and we had a chat. I talked with the father of suicidology. The man that created psychache. It was such an honor to me that he called me. He wanted to know more about the paper that I sent him. He also wanted to see the pain scale I was talking about. This guy didn’t have a computer so he couldn’t Google it. I still have no idea how he got my number. I know I didn’t give it to him when I sent him my paper. I will never know as he died a few months later. But I never will forget him calling me. I just wish I had contacted him sooner rather than later. Maybe we could have had a relationship. I will never know. He died a few days after his last birthday. Funny, I don’t remember when he called me and when I returned the phone call. I should have made note of it. I know I saved his voicemail. It’s on a little cassette tape along with my therapists messages that were important to me.