That's a really good post. I didn't get that exact salutary lesson myself - instead I learned how irrational people all around me could be, and my normal mild paranoia got some temporary validation. On balance I rather missed out on an opportunity to grow.

OTOH I didn't pass through the basement of the WTC that morning because (a) I had done something rather foolish at the job I used to have right by there a few months before, propelling me into a better job uptown and (b) I was late in for work because I tool a detour through a hospital in New Jersey to look at sonograms of my soon-to-be-born son. So one bad reason and one good one. I tell people the good one.