A Public Service Announcement

In the unlikely event that life has failed to fulfill the dreams you dreamt as a younger man,
And has replaced those dreams with things such as doubt, pain and regret,
We regret to inform you that this unfortunate condition will no longer be deemed acceptable,
But will instead be viewed as a failure which is dragging down humanity at large.

It should be made clear that this condition is not considered fatal,
And will only become chronic if you choose to let it be so.
The Board of Health has noted that there are some well-proven cures to this malady,
And that if you reject the chronic nature of this condition,
Simply following the following prescription will in most cases result in a full recovery.

Whereas we live in a world devoid of any such thing resembling hope;
Whereas we find it more difficult each day to derive the meaning of our existence;
Whereas fulfillment has become merely an idea to be considered and no longer the goal we strive to achieve;

We choose this day to make true the things which we have been told were no longer true-
That success is to be measured in relationships and not dollar signs,
That the least of these are the most important,
That freedom is a state of being which cannot be forged from guns and good intentions,
That love is better represented by nights beside hospital beds than butterflies and diamonds.

We take hold of what once was in the hope of reclaiming the beauty that used to be;
We no longer embrace isolation and ignorance at the expense of the mysteries around us;
We seek out high places to sing songs of wonder at the magnificence of this day;
We maintain that the world should not be viewed through photographs,
But instead from tops of mountains with legs hanging over cliffs, wearing shoes caked in mud.

We believe that black and white are merely shades of the same grey matter that makes us men.
We reject the use of a price tag to determine value,
Recognizing that value is inherent and cannot be assigned to anyone or anything.
We believe that more should only be used in conjunction with laughter, love and diversity,
No longer finding a place next to words like money, stress and isolation.
We recognize that disagreement is a prerequisite for dialogue,
And that embracing our differences will help us find ourselves.

The places from which we came no longer hold power over us.
The prose which once defined us is no longer palatable to our sun scarred lips.
We turn our palms to the heavens, hoping to be healed by that same sun which brings us life.
We draw our strength from cracks in sidewalks and the shade of oak trees beside riverbeds.
We have chosen futures formed from clay to replace the stone tablets given to us at the beginning of time.

These futures are no more determined than an ill-fated roll of a once-weighted die,
Shifting and changing as we chase the horizon,
Bidding us welcome to a place yet unseen by human eyes.
We embrace the uncertainty of the road ahead,
Knowing that rarely in life are we able to choose our path.
When such times do come, we know we must not be reckless,
But rather respect the sanctity and purity of that moment.

The bridges we've built between then and now bring us ever closer to the tomorrow we've been searching for.
We turn and linger for far too long, hoping to catch a glimpse of that beauty which has eluded us since we were spoken into existence.
Every now and then something catches our gaze, just out of our grasp, reminding us from where we came.
And though that beauty still eludes us, we will not rest until it has been restored to its rightful place-
At the peaks of mountains, at the right hand of kings, at the forefront of our minds.
We will restore it, because that is the purpose we have claimed as our own.

We are sustained by an unwavering hope-
That our dreams might one day manifest,
That the beauty we seek is more than a product of our imagination,
That our fractured souls will be restored,
That love and peace and joy will be branded into our consciousness,
The mark of a generation rooted in the hope that beauty and fulfillment will one day come,
Even if not for another morning.

And until that morning comes, the manifestation of that hope will be found in the same ideals which have transformed our reality:
To examine all ideas and embrace all people.
To sing all songs and read all poems.
To fear nothing and reject no one.
This is the life we have chosen.