Manifesto

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
- "Hamlet", Act I, scene 5; William Shakespeare

I was walking right down the middle of the street. There were cars, but I didn't see them. I was watching the clouds in the sky. The wind was blowing at my back and the clouds moved at the same speed and in the same direction as I was walking. From this sight, I sensed the world moving beneath my feet. And on that forgotten day when it dawned on me that I really had absolutely nothing at all in this world to do except walk down the middle of a street... and I was feeling like just flying away to anywhere but right there..., it really, really hit me.

It didn’t hit me from behind; it hit me from the front. Perhaps, by moving the Earth with my feet, I had accidentally walked into it. I remember how that felt, even today. It was a punch in the stomach and a breath of fresh air all at the same time. Its flavor was sweet and acrid. It had taste and it had smell and it had texture. I sensed that I was alive.

I was alive and I intended to stay that way. I knew that there were more things in heaven and earth than what I had dreamt of, and I wanted to know what more there was. My view on life was no longer muddled or murky, or like walking down the middle of a street, without direction. It was now about finding out what more there was, what more that I wasn’t seeing or feeling or knowing. So I got up on the sidewalk and began my work of living. I decided that I must use the sidewalk and discover and develop the core elements that would define me, my character, and my sense of self. Eventually, I figured out that I would mostly consist of three states of being that must all balance.

My three core elemental states would consist of my mental, physical, spiritual states. I realized that all three states existed in me, but were sorely out of balance with each other. My mental state was stronger than my physical, and my spiritual was wandering right down the middle of the road, looking for a place to go. And since then, this is what I have decided.

I will be Strong enough to live a comfortable life without having to ask for help. I have a long way to go yet and there is still much to be done.
I will be Wise enough to know what I don’t know, and smart enough to be able to find out what I want. Every day has become a chance to figure out what isn’t already known.
Hope and Love are always good things, and that they can never be bad things. I will Hope for and Love everyone that I meet. And I will keep my cards above the table for them.
I will Remember that self-imposed limits are set by fools. There’s no sense in being another. The choices we make under duress and with beings smaller and weaker define us as who we are. We are only truly alive when we are not comfortable or safe.

Even these days, I sometimes find myself walking down the middle of the street. But now I know why I do it. It is just what I do.