IT'S A DAMN GOOD THING THERE'S LOVE!

Hey, man, I've pretty much seen everything in this crazy life but war. I've been pulled over on the side of the road in Caracas, Venezuela, with a half dozen heavily armed teenage policemen laughing at me while tossing my passport around like a hot potato. I thought for sure I was going to be kidnapped and killed. I was in the back of a cab once, headed home in the worst part of Brooklyn and while we were stopped at a light, I looked over just in time to see a hooded creature whip out his gun and point it right at my face. All I could do was close my eyes and wait for the sound. The cabbie hit the locks just in time and stepped on the gas and we were off. I've lived through the gut wrenching aftermath of a double homicide I probably shouldn't be talking about. I once watched a man get gunned down right outside my window in Miami. I watched him hit the ground and saw the man who was chasing him close in and fire three more shots into his back. I once found myself, foolishly, 100 feet up on a 5.10d climb in the Gunks in the rain. I was 60 feet out from my last piece and I was trembling and my feet could do nothing but slip and blood began to pool around my fingernails as I clung with all my might to the sharp wet rock. I most certainly should have died that day. And the stories only go on and on from there. But you get the gist of those wild days of my life. But that said, I will tell you in all honestly, that none of those things even remotely compare to the stresses and traumas of the normal, every day doings of the modern day man/husband/father that I have become. It's a damn good thing there's love!