It's a Wonderful Life

Last Friday, I received a surprise call from an old friend. Bob Rux lives in Montana and for years he organized the Chico Skydiving boogie. I had attended the party for about ten years and the last time I flew in to the event, we crashed the airplane. I lived, Brent and Steve did not.

My Chico story of survival really starts with Bob. (Now I really hate when people praise me for being a hero or an "inspiration," so I know if Bob reads this he'll really hate me for doing the same to him, but....) Bob saved my life. He and many others, but the thing that sets Bob apart from the others was that he threw himself into a situation that others didn't. He put himself in danger by crawling through airplane wreckage that was on fire to disable the battery so the airplane would not explode. (He embarrassingly accepted awards in Montana for it and tries to downplay it still.)

Anyway, last Sunday we had a couple drinks together and I got to introduce him to J.D. and visit for a couple hours. We talked skydiving, caught up on what mutual friends are doing now and some other small talk.

And I asked him for his Chico story. He filled in some gaps that I was confused about and gave me a little insight about the rescue. He feels responsible for the accident because he thinks he could have prevented it. (Mind you that God didn't prevent it.) Bob still suffers from survivor guilt and I'm sure that even though I told him through tears that he should never hold himself responsible for the accident he always will.

You'll get to read the book some day because I'm back writing it with a vengeance. Thanks for the nudge, Bob.

Digression: My friend, Anna, posed a thought that I've been thinking about tonight. Someone told her that people tend to portray their life as perfect on their blogs.

And I wanted to straight up tell you and Bob that seriously, mine is perfect. I tried to tell him that my life is as it should be. It is wonderful and blissfully miserable.

I hope yours it too.