What is science but the pursuit of the truth? What is Buddhism but 2500 years of observation as to the nature of mind?

On paper I would be a rather bold individual in our culture.

The surface of the Earth itself is an immense loom upon which the sun weaves the fabric of existence.

The measure of a society is not only what it does but the quality of its aspirations.

In the West we cling to the past like limpets. In Haiti the present is the axis of all life. As in Africa, past and future are but distant measures of the present, and memories are as meaningless as promises.

All cultures through all time have constantly been engaged in a dance with new possibilities for life. Change is the one constant in human history.

What could be more lonely than to be enveloped in silence, to be the last of your people to speak your native tongue, to have no way to pass on the wisdom of the elders, to anticipate the promise of the children. This tragic fate is indeed the plight of someone somewhere roughly every two weeks.