My Second Life

How can any book cover accurately express the agonizing pain a man must endure when the world has stripped him of the one thing that he cherishes? Can a book cover ever properly convey the true extent of the evil and meanness held in the hearts of man? Could it ever display the strength of the human spirit to continue to fight in a soul crushing battle, holding on against all odds with only self belief and a father's undying love to sustain a person?
It cannot.
It would be an insult to anyone who has ever suffered a heart breaking loss to even try. The depth of a man's struggle can only ever be faithfully understood by turning the pages of his story
We all have two lives. We only get to experience living in the second after we realize we only have just one.
I have my first real scare in life when I get attacked by a kangaroo when I am seven. My first brush with the cliff-face edge of death comes when I am 12. My dad drives the family down the dangerous Skipper's Canyon dirt road in New Zealand in a rented minivan.
Including the occasion I am almost involved in two different plane flight crashes, in the same night, there have been at least a half dozen more occasions when I have been within a moment's inattention of being killed.
However, none of those frightening incidents compare to what I experience after my son is abducted.
This memoir is the story of how I used the traumatic experiences of my life to give me strength to forge on during a 13 year fight to be a father to my son.
What did it take for me to get to my second life?
It took me to truly understand what fear is.