I Started Life As A Cowboy

I didn't really start life as a cowboy, but I wanted to. I haunted movie houses and drank in every scene where Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, or Hopalong Cassidy rode up mesas and down canyons to bring law and order to the Wild West. I owned my own pair of chaps. I loved horses. Still do, although I never learned to ride very well. I read every Zane Grey book I could get my hands on. I was, in general, the despair of my father who thought I was never going to grow up. I discovered that fact many years later, too late to show him that, in a way, I actually was living my dream of "catching the bad guys." Because isn't that what stories are all about? Bad guys don't have to be gunslingers. Bad guys are the conflicts in our lives--and conflict is at the heart of every story. Hopefully, my father knows I'm okay.

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to visit New Mexico and Arizona. I felt as if I was finally home.