The Tragic End

The Tragic End

My understanding of the nature of logic as it pertains to critical thinking has changed dramatically within the last year. My original belief was that critical thinking was only a process of thinking about a subject for a long period of time and giving it your undivided attention. I have come to learn that critical thinking goes beyond that first belief. Critical thinking has no time limits and does not always require undivided attention. It is the process of obtaining information and then sorting through that information and discarding or separating fact from fiction in a logical and orderly process.

When separating fact from fiction I have had to learn to ask myself if I am allowing my emotions or pre-conceived bias to control my thinking process and if what I have learned is factual or not. There are still times that I allow my emotions and bias to cloud my thinking. This is especially true when it come to dealing with my ex-husband and/or his family. This was made clear to me recently while we all were dealing with a family tragedy.

On the evening of January 8 of this year, I received a call from my ex-husband. He had called to inform me that one of our fourteen-year-old nieces had died. My first thought was that she had been in some type of accident, as I knew she was healthy and could not have died from an illness. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Our niece had taken her own life. I then let my emotions cloud my thinking. I wanted to blame her parents and his family for this believing that if they had taken care of her this would not have happened. I did not think about how close I knew the family was and how even now most members of the family still treated me as a member even though I had been divorced from my ex-husband for four years. Once I had calmed down, I was able to think rationally and realized that it was not their fault. A few days later, we were to find out what had events led up to this tragedy.

My niece had left no note or clues as to why she had felt the need to take this tragic step. This was difficult for the entire family, especially for her identical twin sister. From talking to friends, we were able to piece together the clues as to why she felt she had no other way to deal with her problems. She had taken her own life because of the cruelty of her peers and certain members of her mother's family. Alyssa was a beautiful and loving girl who should never have had to suffer as she had. She never spoke up and