You know I once found a runaway teenage lad standing on a log with a noose round his neck. The rope went over the limb of a tree and the end tied to the log he stood on.

How did I deal with it?

I calmly told him that the (perfectly servicable) knot tying the end of the rope to the log wouldn’t hold and he’d end up on his bum with a sore ropeburn on his neck.

Then I offered to teach him how to tie a better knot.

As we sat and I showed him how to tie a “Sheetbend” (badly), I casually asked him why
“I can’t stop you from doing this now or in the future. If you really think this is the way out then who can stop you? But I won’t sleep unless I know why.”

He told me it was because no one let him be with his girlfriend.

I gave him the respect of listening and a poignant pause to make his statement important.
I then said “You know you can tie that knot (the noose) pretty good, so if you untied it you could tie it again" (he agreed) “But to learn this knot you could copy me with that end of the rope.”

I felt able to breathe again as he untied the noose.

Then I showed him how to tie a “Bowline”.
(If you turn a Sheetbend over it looks like a Bowline)

As we slowly tied this knot (easilly first go) I told him that to get the trust that he wanted he needed to teach those around him to trust him and that meant to be open and honest and not hide anything.

I then stood up leaving him with his rope with the two knots in it.
“Your choice mate.”

After a bit he asked “What knot is this?”
“The “Bowline”. They call it “the Rescue Knot” or “the Life Saver’s Knot”. It’s the knot you tie in a rope when you rap it about yourself to be pulled to safety.”

He undid his knot and pulled the rope from the tree then undid mine.

“Can you wrap a rope?” I asked.
He knodded and started winding.
“Toss it in the back and let’s go home” I suggested and he did so.

People with depression don’t need the rope to be given to them
- they just need to know the right knot to tie!

Chookas! ♥☼♥