I should be dead.
Luck, smarts, being in the right time/right place,
risk-taking, believing that there is a right and wrong thing to do, stubbornness, stumbling forward, persistence, making incredible mistakes, flapping my trap so I always got the last word in, having a cold heart when I needed it, and sheer idiocy helped keep me alive.
Finally, Kathy saved my life after I returned from Viet Nam, and, somehow, puts up with me today. It's my favorite character flaw of hers.
A Montagnard Chief granted me immortality, which explains why I can work on this blog. Life remains a contradiction and a mystery.