I don’t have many heroes in this world.

I don’t look up to too many folks.

We are all so very flawed, no matter how great we might think we are.

However, my dad introduced me to Bourdain many years ago when he was still on Food Network. I became a fan and followed him from then on. He became a published author later in his life and its this that has kept me writing, pushing, and working to get published myself. It was his style of storytelling about real people that inspired me to tell stories that were hard to tell about myself and my own struggle. It was his metamorphosis from the person he started out as to the person he became through lessons learned in travel through other countries and cultures, always learning and passing those lessons on to readers and viewers. It was through his work that I learned a nation is its people, their food and their music, and not it’s government and wars. He inspired me to want to learn more about people and food. So today I send birthday wishes to the man I never got a chance to meet but who inspired me to write. (and long to travel…)