This story has to do with something I recall that happened before 9/11.

I worked with a police department in the southwest, and in the wee hours of the morning on 9/11/2001, many officers and I responded to an accident scene on the edge of the city. A man had intentionally thrown himself in front of a car on the interstate. He died. That morning, after the sun had risen, the terrorist attacks occurred.

I always wonder what would have happened if this man, whose name I don’t even recall, had waited just a little longer before giving up. Would he no longer have felt so alone in his pain? Perhaps a surge of patriotism would have spurred him into new action that would have shook him from his depression. No one will ever know, but I wish he had decided to wait. I like to think he would have felt a new sense of community, and found himself again.