Institutionalized rejection of differences is an absolute necessity in a profit economy which needs outsiders as surplus people. As members of such an economy, we have all been programmed to respond to the human differences between us with fear and loathing and to handle that difference in one of three ways: ignore it, and if that is not possible, copy it if we think it is dominant, or destroy it if we think it is subordinate.

Learning not to crumple before these uncertainties fuels my resolve to print myself upon the texture of each day fully rather than forever.

Change is the immediate responsibility of each of us, wherever and however we are standing, in whatever arena we choose.

Differences must be not merely tolerated, but seen as a fund of necessary polarities between which our creativity can spark like a dialectic.

If I cannot air this pain and alter it, I will surely die of it. That's the beginning of social protest.

How much of this truth can I bear to see and still live unblinded? How much of this pain can I use?

Only by learning to live in harmony with your contradictions can you keep it all afloat.