I don't know where I would be if I couldn't do this strange thing. He has saved my life many times over the years, and continues to do so now. For a moment, my body is headed toward disaster, and my mind is elsewhere, focused on this other crucial task, which is to tell you something meaningful before I leave. Because my happiness is incomparable when I write, or think about writing, or look at the world as a writer, and it has been that way from the beginning.