Summary: One of my very good friends from high school committed suicide yesterday. This guy came to my defense, even when my crazy ex was causing issues in my little home town, and most others had bailed out on me. I never forgot that, and kept in touch.

Body: Somehow my boy had some natural game, as he was naturally funny in that good natured way. He managed to attract women that way. He also managed to attract problems with women. It was weird in that a girl would be all over him, then turn on him in an instant. I remember one prom night where we got thrown out of the venue because the owners older wife got pissed because he had several girls around and claimed he said something off color to her. That was pretty much the pattern of his life.

The problem, for him, was that he had been married three times. The first wife had actually befriended the second wife, turned her against him, and they were perpetually launching co-ordinated legal attacks against him. At one point he had to sell off the assets of his business and rebuild due these two constantly sucking money out of him.

One thing to note was that they couldn't take his sterling business reputation, and his contacts away. He was known for running his business on the up and up and paying his subcontractors on time. he rebuilt his business, but then wife number three jumped aboard with the other two. Paying out alimony to three wives, and child support for seventeen kids, was murder on him. He had been reduced to sleeping on a cot in the back of his business, and some of his employees came in yesterday morning to find him dead of a self inflicted gunshot wound.

Lessons Learned:

Keep your shit wrapped up. He had seventeen kids, several by women he didn't marry, but he was paying support on all of them. Even if you choose to have kids, establish an upper limit then go get a vasectomy.

Women really are scorched earth. When they are done, they don't want anything left for you. If they see something bringing you happiness, they will go after it.

From years of conversation with him, he 'got it' about women's nature, and still couldn't help himself. You gotta have the beta conditioning on complete lockdown before you start engaging with women. He just wanted to 'do the right thing' by marrying and having a large family.

He was wholly irresponsible to marry and have that many kids. That's obvious. My SWAG is that this guy would have been taking home six digits, but the ex wife and various child support payments were getting almost all of it. Family courts don't just turn a blind eye in financially emasculating men like this, they actively aid an abet it.

Finally, this wasn't a last act of desperation, spur of the moment thing from what his family said. He'd been contemplating it for months, and his family had helped him get psychiatric treatment. Simply put, he'd figured out that the court system wasn't going to help him out, and that this was the only path he had to get out of the situation.

Conclusion: I really don't understand how he mismanaged it this badly. I guess the bluepill dream is strong with some men. Nobody is perfect, though, and he deserved better. So tonight I will be raising a glass to an old friend.