Overcast and a bit on the chilly side this afternoon on California’s north coast, with a bite to the breeze.

I haven’t noticed this before — suicide rate in America’s rural areas appears off the charts. According to the CDC last month:

From 2004 to 2013, the suicide rate increased in all county urbanization categories, with the smallest increase (7 percent) in large central metropolitan counties and the largest increases in small metropolitan, town/city (micropolitan) and rural counties (approximately 20 percent in each). For both years, suicide rates were increasingly higher as counties became less urbanized.

(Illustration: Vincent van Gogh’s ‘Old Man in Sorrow (On the Threshold of Eternity)‘ found here).

Country living ain’t what it used to be, or thought to be, or something.
Terribly-sad subject matter, and highly complex, and this via RealClearScience on this notion: ‘Suicide is a problem in rich and poor countries alike, and perhaps the most paradoxical study of the subject found that suicide rates tend to be highest in places with the highest levels of happiness.’

Suicide is the ultimate hopelessness. High rate among young Native Americans; though, the rate has been decreasing, suicide among military veterans still up there; and even worse, still — a new analysis on the real-young from HealthDay News:

“While overall suicide rates in children younger than 12 years in the United States remained steady from 1993 to 2012, there was a significant increase in suicide rates among black children and a significant decrease in suicide in white children,” said Jeffrey Bridge, of the Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

Bright side to that shit: ‘The team found that roughly 33 boys and girls between ages 5 and 11 died by suicide every year on average. That translated into a stable rate of a little more than one child suicide a year for every 1 million American children.’
Unless you’re black, then it’s about 2.5 kids.

Sad shit…