It Takes a Much Tougher Man

by a Combat Veteran

You can tell yourself you’ve faced death a thousand times and smiled back, but how many times have you looked at love and loved in return? 

How many times have you said: “I love you” to your significant other at the end of the workday?

How many times have you held your kid’s hand and told them “It’ll be ok”?

How many times have you said “I’m sorry” to your coworker, or sent a text to a sibling saying, “I miss you” or just smiled at that kid working at the gas station?

Death, pain, and violence are all too natural for those of us that rose from the ashes of a violent, crazy world. But that is only because it is all we have ever known.

Take my word for it: It takes a much tougher man to empathize and feel than to kill and destroy.

The Mona Lisa was not painted in the trenches at the Somme.

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This is dedicated to my nephew, Rudy, who I lost on Christmas Eve–leaving behind a wife and two young ones.

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Some people say, “You only go around the world once.” But Nader Gamez can tell you that it can be done a few times. Nader has a wide background of experience in his upbringing, describing himself as “Basically a Chicago street thug combined with border town Texican and a side of Madison Midwesterner.” He graduated with a BA in International Studies from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, with a minor in drinking.

Since then, he has worked several law enforcement and correctional jobs starting with the Dane County Sheriff’s Office, the Waukesha Police Department, the Wisconsin Department of Corrections and Department of Health Services, and Mendota Mental Health Institute. He also competed in amateur boxing as well as with local rugby teams. Currently, he spends his time writing about his past successes and failures, showing future boxers the best ways to avoid a severe concussion, and striving to make the perfect spinach quiche.