Page 30 - THE ENDLESS WAVE | Skateboarding, Death & Spirituality

THE ENDLESS WAVE | PART ONE
He spoke with his friend just before he left for California and he was in good spirits. Streek hadn’t seemed terribly down about losing his job, either.
“He was so happy and vibrant and comedic and jovial and full of life and laugh- ing and smiling that this is the last thing in the world I would expect Martin Streek to do, to walk off this earth on his own terms,” said his friend and fellow Edge announcer Darrin Pfeiffer.
“That’s why I’m so shocked. If he got hit by a bus, we’d still be sad, but it’d be like: `Well, that happens. People get hit by buses.’ But for him to take his own life, it’s now sadness mixed with frustration mixed with a sprinkling of anger ... I love him like a brother, but I’m also pissed off at him. I’m pissed off that he would do something like this and leave us all so sad.”
An article about Martin by Bert Archer in the Globe and Mail was even more telling. David Marsden, Martin’s former boss hinted at one of the possible un- derlying reasons for his suicide.
This was not unfamiliar territory for Mr. Marsden, who’d been through several firings, a name change, and now works a 10-hours-a-week jockey gig at Oshawa’s 94.9 The Rock. “What we are on the radio is what we is,” Mr. Marsden says, remembering the last time he saw his old protégé. “When your job dis- appears, you ask, ‘Who am I,’ and too often the answer comes back, ‘Nobody.’
Men are very much defined by their jobs and careers. When I think about the inner turmoil that Martin was going through as a result of being fired, I am sure it was soul destroying. When we value our job so much that we lose track of relationships, it can be a warning sign.
When it comes to suicide, I think it is the surprise that shocks people the most. They just didn’t see it coming. And yet, hindsight can give us some ad- ditional clues. Beyond the termination, there was a breakup with a girlfriend that could have added to Martin’s anguish (although very little was written about this). Perhaps there were money troubles as projects that Martin thought were coming to fruition, never did. Beyond the 9 reasons, there may
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