Krist Novoselic’s column on music and politics runs every Tuesday on Reverb. Check back on Friday when he writes about what he’s been listening to.I’m sorry to hear the news about Mark Linkous. I want to extend my condolences to his family, friends, and bandmates, all the survivors of suicide. I really don’t know the details, so I’ll just relate my experience for people who choose to accept my words.I hesitated to write about this subject because of what it conjures inside me. One of the hurdles is self-blame and regret. It’s not easy to express how you think you’ve failed in these kinds of situations. But then you have to remember that suicide was a choice made by another person. I can’t rationalize why someone would take their own life: drugs, depression, and, as I’ve said before, there could have been something inside that led them to make such a terrible choice.I recall a conversation with Kurt Cobain about the Alexander Solzhenitsyn book, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. Denisovich is interned in a Soviet gulag, and in the book tells the story of his day. It’s a bleak existence, but he still finds meaning–in building a wall, telling us how he went about it brick by brick. It’s been so long, I don’t know if the wall was a metaphor, but Ivan got into the work. People were struggling to survive in the camp, even going as far as to eat rats. I was astonished at the bad luck of some of the prisoners. They were picked up in Nazi concentration camps by the Soviets and found themselves shipped straight to Siberia. I told this to Kurt, and he scowled in disgust, “They still wanted to live!”I wrote about my thoughts regarding suicide a few weeks ago. That article was a reaction to the news of Alexander McQueen’s passing. I mentioned concentration camps, and the story above is where my sentiments originated. I don’t believe that things were that bad for these three. They were not imprisoned and forced into slavery. They had opportunities and were productive people–they had their work, too, which was excellent. Perhaps they felt imprisoned, but I’m not going to go there because I’m not a mental-health professional. I’ll stick with what I know and have experienced. I’m just another survivor of suicide, and take my story for what you will.I went to the viewing for Kurt at the funeral home. It was quite shocking to see what he’d done to himself. It was a super-hard experience. The reality was stark and very cruel in its irrevocability. But that’s life, or should I say death, for you. Grief has a way of transforming, and there can be healing with time. One of the things that happened was my worldview changed. I used to be super-cynical. Now I’m more positive. I have so many blessings, and many of them are due to Kurt Cobain. How can I not be positive? I think it would be a sin to get so down and throw it all away. But some people have, and all I can be in response is forgiving.Youth Suicide Prevention Program