In the clearing stands a boxer, and a fighter by his trade...

And he carries the reminders of every glove that laid him down or cut him
til he cried out in his anger and his shame
I am leaving, I am leaving, but the fighter still remains

When I was a younger man, I was a fighter. I hesitate to call it boxing. I did box, but I never fought as many times with gloves on as I did with them off. It paid bills. It was dumb, but it was something I did. No one ever asked me about marks on my face because I seldom had them. My forearms and biceps and ribs would be bruised, but not my face. I protected my face.

My hand are meathooks. I have big hands. My dad says I should have been a machinist. I have short, blunt fingers, pronounced thumb muscles, and thick knuckles. The old man would say: "Those hands are for a machine shop, or for beating a man." They seem to work well enough on the keyboard. I've never been particularly fast with my hands. My punch count was usually two-thirds of my opponents. But I seldom lost. Because my strength is that I never quit. Ever.

I never give up on people. I never give up a fight. I never quit hunting, seeking, hoping, loving and (sadly) hating. It's part of the passion. I love to hunt. I love to love. And, sadly, I love to hate.

The past few years have been rough. Divorce, problems with my youngest daughter, jobs, friendships. But I remain. This is not self aggrandizement, it's a recognition of the self that I tried to forget. The fighter.

I am a lucky man. I meet people for a reason. Sometimes I change their lives forever. Sometimes it has to wait. I have long since given up on believing in coincidence. When I make eye contact and there is a moment of understanding and people just unload their lives on me or try to get me to stay just one moment longer, I wait. I listen.

I am a mountain. I am patient and unmovable. I'm a fighter that never quits. Even when life is good, and, frankly, for me it is seldom bad. I am a very lucky man. I never live in fear.

I would usually say my "Prayer" about invincibility. But instead, I issue a challenge to the universe, the one I always issue. "Is that all you've got?" And end with a quote that both establishes my geek-cred and says it all.

"No, madman! Whatever you may see there -- it is not fear! Fear is for lesser men. Never for Doom!" - Victor Von Doom

And for all of us, through the heartbreak of loss and the everyday worries and struggles, we have one prayer in those moments "Today, let me be invincible"