Please come back Duane. This guy is in there still, I know it, and this is the real you. You were happy once don’t you remember? We had a good life for a long t…ime and we had beautiful son, Clash, who loves his dad more than anything in the entire universe. The sun rises and sets on you for Clash, as I know it does on him for you. I picked him up one day from your old place in Long Beach and as he was putting his things in my trunk you came out and got on your knees and put your arms around him… Your head pressing up against his little 8 year old chest, And he wrapped his arms around you as well. And time stood still as I watched this cocoon of love and light surrounding the two of you. The love you had for each other was so profound and deep and mystical, it took my breath away and I began to cry.. One part of me wept in joy because this little boy, my child, was so so happy.. Happier than he had ever been before and I could feel his spirit singing in your embrace. and the other part of me was crying from the pain I felt because I had never experienced anything like that with him, for myself. I vowed then and there, that I would do everything humanly possible to maintain and nurture the love he shared with you, because your relationship with our boy is so special Duane. It is healing and powerful and you two picked each other for a reason, but for a long time you have been lost. You are not serving that purpose, for him or for yourself. Remember this, he won’t be 11 for long and he will soon become a young man, and he will feel jipped and disappointed and angry when he sees old videos of you, ones like this one. Because he never got to have this guy in his life, not consistently enough to make a difference… Teaching him, being present and accountable to him and sharing all your amazing gifts and talents with him.. Putting him first. What is best for him and what serves his spirit besides just you… because he has your DNA and the Peters blood runs through his veins. And one day, deep down inside his heart, when he’s 15 or 16, instead of the admiration he has for you, even now still, the feeling he has when he sees his dad, his hero,will be replaced with teenage angst and resentment. Because he will be old enough to understand. Clash is brilliant and strong and sensitive and funny and sweet. He has manors, he is social and LOVES people. He asks everyone, ” how was your day?” “good?” He has a heart of Gold. Clash is the Peace keeper and protector of the troubled kids who everyone else casts out. Because he was once one and because his father was one also, and his mother. He is a family man, he loves his entire family and wants us all together, loving each other and taking care of one another…. He will watch these videos of you and he will know he has been ROBBED….. by you. He will see how you have hurt his mother, the woman who has raised him and raised him well.. Who never talked badley about his dad despite what lies he was telling the whole world about her. He will remember how you deeply hurt his only brother Schuyler(the closest person to Chess on this planet, he knew Chess better than anyone) and his Papa john, his grandma Debe and his auntie’s and uncles and cousins, Eva, Chess’s mother for God Sake, he was her son too….his family. Because family is EVERYTHING to Clash. It always has been. It’s never to late Peters, remember the story you told me when your best friend Chuck Briggs died.. You had a spiritual awakening and something in you, that part of you that fights for survival cried out..” Get busy living… Or get busy Dying.” We all love redemption stories, they are the best! They are the ones that talk to the spirit in all of us….. Like a great man once said to me, “Don’t you know who you are.. Or have you just forgotten?” And then he added from the bottom of his heart, ” Your a star, ya know…..if you wanna be.” you know what to do Duane….you would be the redemption story to beat all stories, people will forgive and forget everything if your desire to really remember the truth of who you are is sincere and pure of heart. Ditch that guilt you carry like a thousand pound rock on your back by making a living amends to the children you have left, to the people who have stood beside you and believed in you, for your fans. For the generations of kids you can still inspire to march to their own drum. It’s time to lay it down Duane, for good. Ditch that heavy weight your carrying and get rid of the ones around you holding it in place and convincing you that this is the best your life can ever get, because it’s a lie. Remember? If it hurts, it’s a LIE. Remeber Peters… everybody loves a come back. You can do it. We all believe in you.

~post updated and restored on 1/31/17~