As tempting as it is to walk only with slaves, I find what
my children need instead is economic freedom; for my own
austere nature took a lifetime to achieve and I cannot assume
they were born for this until they know for themselves their
own nature and how best to cultivate the good from within;
they will breathe in the same air as I but what they exhale will
be who they are for they cannot hold onto my own exhaust any
more than I can theirs

There will necessarily be a raging river between myself and
those with whom I sympathize the most; for whatever it is
that I have become it was forced upon me by privilege; there
is nothing I can say to comfort a suffering life except to assuage
their pain for the moment and be reminded that there is
no satisfaction inherent in observing the poor before taking
leave to waste more food

An invention of expediency, a convenience to nurture destiny,
fear is the ultimate tool to control those who have no time
for anything except to raise their own children; and as we
watch them accept instruction from those with whom we
disagree we can only counter their influence by the scant
degree to which we have deviated from the same fears
that were placed within us, but it is only until we are old
enough to know and by then it may be too late

The ability to become what power grants, to the detriment of
polite acknowledgment of the moral rigors necessary to
maintain the underground movement that once objected to
personal gain but now embodies it, is what draws us near; the
power of authority cannot survive without force in the
absence of either moral clarity, obvious merit or grantor of
favor; but because in our fantasies one man is stronger than
our collective minds to whom we willingly bow because we
look for a savior among us forgetting that the savior is in
our time of worship, waiting for us

We are cut and bleed openly on the pavement, but
our body heals itself; the scar that remains reminds us
but it is in our minds that we’re not allowed to reveal
our pain; it is our consciousness that must forever act
sane even though it lives in the past; judging how many
lovers a person may have had or how many they have
set free; we must benchmark ourselves because that
is the only way we can prove we are not one speech
from taking the rights away from an entire group of
people because we can demonize anyone as long as
it is not what we have become

The words that speak of redemption and humility clash
with the psychology of ambition for within our personality
lies the unquenchable trauma of our life; we seek revenge
instead of rehabilitation because revenge is easier to refract
reality in order to find our place where normalcy exists and
the belief that who we are was not our choice or in our
power to alter; we know this not to be entirely true yet
we are powerless to consider the alternative because there
is no place to find true acceptance

The most moral thing I can do is accept the inconvenience
of kindness, empathy and truth in the company of those
who wish to exercise their own freedom to insult others and
place blame upon others for their failures in life; for the ability
to remember who suffered not by their own hand but instead
by the hand of others is something one must learn even if
it means rejecting the heart of those whom they once loved