Out of the Darkness

So here I am again facing my fears.

Like last year, my indecisiveness confounded me on whether to join in The Overnight walk, a 20-mile walk overnight which benefits the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. For the first time in 30 years I swallowed my pride and let folks know a painful issue in my life: the death of family members to suicide. Why should I have to remind folks the embarrassing tale that everything is not so perfect in my perfectly constructed little world?

Then life happens. The news happens. The reason for being happens. It rudely awakens me to remind me that it's not about me. It's about you, greater than anything I may be confronting.

Two days ago, a man unable to bear the mental weight of living in post-Katrina Louisiana, snaps, and ends up getting shot by police in a stand off because he can't bear to leave his FEMA trailer. A week ago, a front page news story appears in the Washington Post stating that the suicide rate among soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan is at an all time high over the last two decades.

Over the last month, the "in your face" reasons never seemed to end.

I'll be in New York City tomorrow. Walking. For you. Into the light.