My most dearest:
Too often, we unnecessarily over complicate life. I believe, truly, that it is as Robert Fulgrum entitled his book, All I Really Need to Know, I learned in Kindergaren.
Those lessons sit upon the bedrock of the lesson you learned from Teacher Mary in preschool: you are the boss of you and of nobody else. You have control over but yourself, not others, not life, not the circumstances in which you find yourselves.
Given these fundamental truths, be kind to others you encounter in the world. You never know what burdens they carry … just as no one knows the burden you carry for having our once happy family destroyed by those given to evil intentions.
If you can, always help those in need of your help. Be it purchasing a meal for the hungry, diapers for the poor baby, planting a community garden, or offering a smile or kind word to someone invisible or wishing he/she were invisible.
If you cannot help, do no harm. Do NOT make things worse.
Our fundamental human rights have both positive aspects (e.g., the right to basic necessities of life: to be free to make decisions over our bodies and our health, the right to honest work in exchange for fair pay, and the right to read or learn whatever we wish) and negative aspects (e.g., the right to be free of adverse interference by others: to not have our families interfered with by Busybody Bobs and Nosy Nancys, to not be forced to study the religions and dogmas of others, and to not be harmed on account of the color of our skin or the religion to which we subscribe).
Too often, paternalistic know-it-alls force their ideas upon us, pretending they know better. They know shit. For example, having never been shot, I cannot imagine the pain associated with being shot. However, having passed a kidney stone, I can tell you of the great suffering that entailed.
Only arrogant assholes pretend to know what they have never experienced. They may think they “know” in the abstract from readings, etc., however, that is but intellectual arrogance. One who has never tasted true love can quote Shakespeare until the Hale-Bop Comet returns, but his/her soul will remain as a shriveled seed until it is filled with true love and understanding of what it means to live for another.
It has been said that living is easy; it is living right that is hard. Yes and No. It is NOT hard in the complicated sense. Living right isn’t complicated. It IS hard in the sense of self-discipline. To do the right thing when all those in the peanut gallery encourage you to do otherwise can be challenging. We see this daily when the crowd mocks the Different — different in rags and second-hand attire, different in stinky home-cooked ethnic food brought for lunch, different in perspective on life, etc. — and people go along despite having internal reservations.
Living right is hard, but live right anyway. At the end of day, that is all that matters. That is the stuff from which your character is formed. That is the stuff no one can take from you no matter if they take your family, your home, your career, your freedom, or even your life.
The master of those given to evil and evil-intentions will reclaim what is rightfully his.
You worry not of them. Live right: help others and do no harm.
All my love, always and forever,
Dad
shoshandjaialai 