Praying for Tony Dungy & Family

Every story of a parent losing a child cuts me to the quick now. It always upset me, and I always mourned for that person before. But now it makes me lose my breath for a moment or two, seizes my heart. I can't explain it.

So all the more so I am so sad to read about the death of NFL Coach Tony Dungy's son James, which appears to have been a suicicide.

Suicide. To raise a child through all those days and nights, to wring yourself out with love for him and break your back caring for him - only to receive word that he's decided to check out. Life wasn't good enough, not precious enough, not worth seeing through.

I read the news this morning and felt physically ill. For only half a second can I consider: what if that was my son someday? I can't let my brain go there. I don't mean to dump on poor James Dungy, who evidently must have been in a great deal of turmoil to make such a decision. But I can't not see it from the parents' perspective now, I can't not see it as anything other than a completely selfish act. A thoughtless and stupid act, and viciously cruel.

My heart and prayers are with the Dungy family, with any family suffering from so great a loss.