therefore, choose life

We thought we could buy life and sell ourselves; we thought that made us owners of what we didn't understand; we thought, we thought... We thought so much we stopped going outside, or even looking outside. Our understanding of the world shifted from wonder at all the life and death and the mystery from which we came and to which we returned -- to counting, weighing, and measuring for its own sake. We turned everything into numbers, and numbers into dollars. We made idols of what we named and numbered, and worshipped them over all else. We thought information was more important than wisdom. But some were willing to admit confusion, to turn their heads away from dollars, status, and identity, and open the door to wisdom. They turned their attention away from themselves and back to mysteries. They got their hands dirty. They gave themselves to life, and to death. They agreed to live small, to think small, and to give thanks to the small, the poor, the unknown, unnamed, and uncelebrated. They said thank you for all the gifts they knew they could never pay for. They turned their attention from the dire and depressing stories of consumption and production, and started telling stories about gifts and gratitude.

They are we; we are they. Love binds us to each other; and to the past, and to the future. I say thank you now; and whether or not I can believe that you will be there to read it, I will not stop saying thank you. In grace and gratitude I place my hope, and in faith I will continue, so that the story will not end with me, no matter what my own ending may look like...