Breathe in God, Breathe Out Cancer

"Breathe in God, breathe out cancer," I prayed with as much conviction as I could muster.

BY Gary Stromberg

PUBLISHED January 11, 2018

Gary Stromberg co-founded GIBSON & STROMBERG, a large and influential music public relations firm of the sixties and seventies. The company represented such luminaries as The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Muhammad Ali, Barbra Streisand, Boyz II Men, Neil Diamond, Ray Charles, The Doors, Earth, Wind & Fire, Elton John, Three Dog Night and Crosby, Stills, & Nash. He also spent time in the film business co-producing movies such as Car Wash (Universal Studios) and The Fish that Saved Pittsburgh (Lorimar/United Artists). Stromberg has also written three books, The Harder They Fall (Hazelden - 2007) and Feeding the Fame (Hazelden - 2009) and a third book for McGraw-Hill Publishing, entitled Second Chances, which was published in 2011. He's currently working on a fourth book, She's Come Undone, for HCI Publishing, which will come out next spring.

The canals in Venice Beach shimmer at sundown. The low-hanging sun casts long shadows, which make the water appear colder than I suspect it is. The ducks that line the banks now seem to like this time of day, as they are more active than when the sun is high overhead. Maybe it's their last chance to scrounge the canal bottom, looking for duck delicacies before darkness sets in.

The gravel path near my house parallels the canals for quite a distance. I love taking walks at the end of the day, especially when the tide from the ocean a few blocks away is high, and the canals are full. This is my private sanctuary, the place I go to check in.

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