RIP Steve Giglio

My good friend Steve Giglio died last night.  Car crash.  Poland.  That’s all I know.  He was treated for cancer about a year ago but he beat that.  He was planning to go to China soon.  Again.  He never stayed in one place for long.  Irrepressible.  I think that’s a good word to describe him.
I first met Steve 20 years ago, because it was the first year I was in Prague, and our paths crossed at the Chapeau Rouge.  That was one of our big hangouts at the time.  For a long time, he was somebody I’d see now and again, at a party or some event or something.  I remember one time he organized a tantric massage weekend, and he spent the weekend sneaking up on people and shouting “Meditate!”
I really got to know him better about 6 years ago, though, when he told me he wanted to write a book about his life, said he had a lot of the stories written down, but he wanted my help, you know, because I’m a writer.
I agreed, thinking “Yeah, I can dash this off in a couple of months.”  I had no idea.  There were stories from China, Egypt, Italy,  India, Amsterdam, and of course from Prague, and from his childhood in Ohio and his days on the commune there.  There were stories of his quest for enlightenment, the great gurus he met, and his ever evolving philosophy of life.  There were tales of romance, lots of those.  He loved women, and women loved him.  There were stories about old friends, and current friends, and cars, he really liked cars, and his antique business, and brushes with the law.
In the end, it took about two years to write, and I left out more than we put in, because if I’d left in everything, it would have been longer than The Lord of the Rings and all of the Dune books combined.
He had a big life.  He will be sorely missed.