Once I got over the shock of reading the headline of Dan Johnson’s suicide, my overwhelming emotion was sadness.
Sadness at the unnecessary end of his life. Sadness for his family and friends and church members. Sadness, also, for the victims of his life, as outlined in the KyCIR report. Sadness for a life that started in devotion, but devolved into a mix of extremes, of health and unhealth, of caring and abusing.
I have no doubt that the KyCIR report is accurate. I also do not doubt that the reports of Johnson being a caring person with fellow lawmakers are also true. And that just adds to the sadness: that he could not see the extremes, could not keep from living into them, and in the end was consumed by them.
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