One day years ago I receive a call from an eighteen year old student who told me that he was going to end his life, but because I had treated him kindly he wished that I would forgive him. To buy time I stated “I can only forgive you face to face so wait until I come to your home”. I probably should have called the police but I was afraid that any appearance other than mine could cause him to kill himself. When I arrived at his home he opened the door and was holding a forty five revolver in his hand. For the next two hours we chatted and I finally convinced him that he should not take his life. My triumph was short lived because he then pointed the gun at me and announced that he had changed his mind. “I am going to kill you and then I will kill myself” Though shocked I kept my composure and ultimately after another hour he handed me the gun and I drove him to the hospital. That crisis was the beginning of his way back, and happily he has matured into an outstanding human being. As for me, I was fine during the crisis but slept for seventeen hours after it. That traumatic day taught me how fleeting life can be and that the now is a helluva lot more important than most of what I was worrying about. There are moments when I lose that insight, but fortunately I am on more than one occasion jolted back to fully focusing on the people and things that really matter,