I am a human being. I have been in my life, both petty and noble. I have given, selflessly, at times, and selfishly at times. I have loved and helped others and I have caused dissension. I have inspired and I have deflated. I have suffered and caused suffering and I have comforted and been comforted. I have hung on and I have given up. I have given and I have taken. I have done this and so have you. I believe with my whole heart in loving and being loved. I am living and I am dying. All humans die. There is not always tragedy in that and there is little fear. The tragedy only comes when people who have not had the courage to live, die without knowing all the glory and all the sorrows a human being is capable of feeling. I have seen the Beauty and I have loved it with tears streaming down my face.

I believe in the dignity of life. To me, the saddest thing in life is when one human robs the dignity of another, but that is another story.

I do not know what comes next. I personally believe in a Creator and I have felt both His presence and His absence at different times. I know what it is to be prostrated in grief before God and to feel either comfort or a horrifyingly empty silence. I know that what I feel has come from something inside me, and I wonder who and what put it there. The fact that it IS there answers many questions for me.

What comes next? I don't know. Whether there is glory or oblivion, I want to walk on to it with my head high and my heart accepting and open to it. I am accepting of the good and the bad in how I lived my life. I have made my mistakes. I have cast my bread upon the waters. I have cast my pearls before those who treasured them and those who rejected them. The victory for me is that I still had the courage to cast them at all.

Shakespeare said that time and tide wait for no man. He should have added or woman, but I will forgive him for that. We all know it doesn't wait. We have probably all felt, or will feel, those moments when we want to hold up our hands and cry "WAIT! Let me try that again, let me have that moment back. I can do better, Let me TRY!" Some of us have been knocked flat by the ensuing march of time as it takes no notice at all of our cries.

So, what happens next? None of us really know, we only know what we have chosen to believe happens next. There was once a Mohican chief named Waupumut who said the following words...."When it comes time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home." I agree with that.

If I had a request of those who know me now or may know me in the future, it would be this.......I am both strengthened and weakened by life, help me. Help me to live the rest of it so that I may exit this plane with my head help high. Help me to see that my weakest moments taught me how to be strong. Help me to know that those who could not love me are just as worthy of all the love and kindness that I can muster as those who stood by me. How do you do that? How do any of us do that for each other? By smiling into each other's eyes, even when tears flow. By a gentle touch when pain is present. By an encouraging word when the odds are way to high against us. By simply saying, I like you. There must be a million tiny ways that we can help each other. Why can't we all choose those words and actions instead of the hateful, hurting ones? Because my friend, we are human beings. We are both noble and petty, selfish and kind, loving and vicious, .............

Some words that are true are "The moving finger writes, and having writ, moves on, Nor all they piety nor wit shall call it back to cancel half a line, Nor all thy tears wash out a word of it."

A well known Christian philosopher, Francis Schaeffer, wrote a book called "How Should We Then live?". He is a true thinker whether you agree with his personal beliefs or not. He knows and quotes the world's greatest thinkers and makes astute observations on them, the world they lived in and the effects they had on mankind as well as vice versa. He notes that society cannot stand chaos, that space abhors a vacuum. The chaos will be put in SOME order, the vacuum WILL be filled with something. Each of us decide daily what to fill our space with.

No human being can be his/her best self every day. What they can do is to decide more often that on THIS day I will be my best self. ON this day I will make an effort to comfort another human. On THIS day I will think first of someone else instead of myself. On this day, I will forgive myself and at least one other human for some mistake.

So, how do we face a world where terrorists wipe out thousands of lives in a few horrifying moments? How do we face a world where our religious leaders sexually abuse our innocent children? What do we do to change all these things that seem so out of our control? Do we give up any attempt at being loving and good? Do we lose ourselves in pleasure and distraction? Do we read into the night trying to find answers that don't exist?

My answer may be useless to you, that is your choice to make. It is certainly simple. It is short. It is both easy and hard. We are brothers. Yes, YOU as well as I, are brothers to people with different skin colors, different religious beliefs, different genetic codes. We are all connected to all of life and to death. We are simply, The Human Beings. My answer is this, again I borrow the words, I do it wisely because others have a better gift of words than I. I have only the gift of recognizing beauty. My answer is.............."Beloved, Love one another." Nothing else helps.