Cecilia's Write Of Passage: 33 Reasons Peter Durkin Could be the Most Interesting Man in the World

When you drink, you drink beer. And when you drink a full glass of something new, you write it down.
Your list of different beers you’ve drank is over 1,500.
You have wanted to live in Africa since reading, Peter Matthiessen's “The Tree Where Man Was Born.”
You lived in Africa…twice!
You love fishing so much that even when your parents told you if you go fishing in the pond alone, they would beat you, you still went fishing in the pond alone. And when you came home you said, “Bring it on.”
While living in Florida in elementary school, your parents couldn’t find you because you were hidden by a big African American woman hauling in all of the carp. You hoped by sitting so close to her, you could drop your line exactly where she did and reel in some too. But no, not a one.
You still talk about how your dad killed the sea turtle you brought home and put in the swimming pool.
You still talk about how your parents wouldn’t let you buy a spider monkey…still and it’s been like 48 years!
That when your parents called to check on you and your brother while they were at a party, your answer was, “I’m fine, Mike’s fine, and the duck’s fine.”
You didn’t mind sleeping in a hammock the days you went fishing in the Keys because it was better than being stung by scorpion at night.
And we won’t even get into the fishing hooks in your face stories…no.
That when you would come home with something cupped in your hand, your wife never knew if it was going to be a cute and cuddly or a slimy and dangerous thing you had found outdoors.
You knew better than to tell your wife during your honeymoon that the vivid dream she had where you were a Roman soldier and she was a maid caring for your wounds, was the exact same dream you had just awoken from as well.
That while in the Peace Corps in Botswana, the local guys wouldn’t let you drive because you kept swerving away from the antelope crossing the road instead of trying to hit them so that you could all have meat for dinner.
That while in the Peace Corps, waiting on the side of the road as your vehicle's flat tire was being fixed, a black limo pulled up, the passenger rolled down the window, asked if you needed help. The car drove off after you gave him the thumbs-up sign. “Do you know who that was?” your language teacher asked. The five of you PCV’s shook your heads. “That was the President of Botswana.” And you got to tell him that story face to face 20 years later.
You named your daughter after the single malt scotch you and your wife drank on an amazing fishing trip that resulted in her birth 9 months later.
Four years later, you didn’t name your son Bud as you promised your father-in-law.
You flew falcons to ward off geese at JFK airport and got to scream, “I love my job!” as 747’s flew overhead.
You managed a game reserve in Africa with tame cheetah, trained elephants, wrangled an escaped croc, removed a 12 foot python from sunbathing across the road, caught a boom slang, spitting cobra and monitor lizard coming after your daughters rabbits.
Bushmen put two vulture feathers on your vehicle to ensure a safe journey.
You’re known as the guy who walks down bad neighborhoods, sees a place that looks dangerous for white people to go in and that’s where you’d get your lunch.
While in Botswana, you told a future president of a country “No”. It doesn’t even matter what he wanted, just the fact that you said no to his idea was a huge deal.
While camping with a Kennedy, you told him no, too! “That’s my daughter’s juice, you can’t drink that.” Remember? (smh)
You told then President George W to sort out Zimbabwe, with secret service pointing rifles at your head.
You filled in as salesperson at your wife’s store, not minding too much that customers always asked why there was a man working at “Women’s Work”.
You took one look at your wife who just came from a trip into the Kalahari Desert and asked, “What happened to you?" then proceeded to devote the next 12 years to supporting her efforts with the San.
Your daughter takes Wildlife Conservation Biology, is a board member for the school’s fishing club and is a card-carrying falconer, apprenticed by her dad.
Your son at 16 can out snowboard you…and you’re proud of him for doing so.
You tried to get a TV show of your family’s adventures produced, twice!
You get up at 6am, catch a train then a subway to your engineering desk job every day so that your wife can write her memoirs.
You’ve hauled countless boxes of crafts in and out of your SUV for hundreds of craft shows so that your wife can help women around the world earn a living, while she did not.
You stood beside your wife as she was written about in magazines, newspapers, interviewed on TV and on the radio, received accolades and awards while you quietly provided the funding and the physical support for all of her efforts.
And because you look around you and say on a daily basis, “I’m the luckiest guy I know. “ If you’re not THE most interesting, at the very least, you’re the coolest.