Is Money Worth Dying For?

I was greatly disturbed today to read an article about an L.A. man who killed his wife and five kids, then turned the gun on himself.  He faxed a letter to a news station before the murder-suicide outlining his reasoning.  He and his wife had both lost their jobs, were behind in their mortgage and other bills, etc.  

I don't want to trivialize this economic crisis, nor the notion that people can become severely depressed behind this stuff.  However, WTF?  I mean seriously.  When I first heard this I was livid.  First of all, every time I hear about one of these murder-suicides I always wonder why the assailant didn't start with the suicide part.  I mean why take innocent people with you?  This just disgusts me to no end.  But then I started thinking about how many other cases of finance-based suicides I've read about in the past few months.  I asked myself, are our possessions more valuable than life itself?

It seems like an easy 'no' on the surface, but think about it.  A person's inability to sustain their standard of living just cost seven lives.  And there are plenty smaller stories out there that aren't sensational enough to make headlines.  It's clear that financial problems are enough to depress anyone and with a sudden onset of depression there's always potential for a worst case scenario.  So how do we prepare ourselves?

I honestly don't know for sure what I would do if one day I was in danger of losing everything I had with no other options in sight.  But in light of this recession/depression we're in, I've given it a considerable amount of thought.  I hope my SURVIVAL SKILLS would kick in and I would maintain the necessary composure to help guide my family through it.  I hope my FAITH kicks in and I'd know that what doesn't kill me only makes me stronger.  I hope LOVE kicks in and I realize that love indeed concurs all and as long as we have it, we will survive.

I believe we need to start treating the financial crisis like the category 5 hurricane that could come any day.  Think about, talk about, take precautions.  I believe mental preparedness is a valuable asset in times like these.