I have heard people talking about how they want to face death.  How they want to be aware and to look death straight in the face, not go too willingly.  That is exactly how I feel about life.  Death is (hopefully) a distant inevitability.  Now I prefer to concentrate on how I am going to live gracefully.  Actually gracefully is not a word that is usually associated with me.  It is not that I am clumsy, just not stylish on my feet.

Most people do not live in a vacuum.  Most people on a daily basis come into contact with dozens of people.  Some of them I have referred to as The Invisible People.  These are people who take care of the world we live in and are rarely seen or acknowledged by those of us who benefit by their work.  There is the person that fixed the light bulb in the streetlight or who waters the plants on the Boulevard.  Often we don’t acknowledge cleaners or waiters or the person in the kiosk who takes your ticket.  But all of these people, whether  we acknowledge them or not, have an effect on how we live our lives.  And in turn we affect theirs.

Even those people who prefer to stay indoors and alone are affected by others.  Somewhere there are people ensuring that the water we drink is clean and that the power stays on in our homes.  They are affecting our lives.  If you watch TV or listen to the radio you are affected by what you hear and see.  In turn those people have jobs because you and I make use of their product.  Farmers provide us with food.  We need them and they need us.  So you see even if you want to be alone you are affected by others, unknown and unseen.  We are all in this together.

I want to enjoy life, my life. Not some regimented human warehousing excuse for a life.  I want to breathe the fresh air of freedom and know that I am making a difference to someone, somewhere.  Perhaps it will be my words that will inspire another to take a chance to sing out, to live.  Perhaps that is the reason I am here.  I do not want my death to make the difference, but rather my life and the way in which I lived it.  Each of us has something to contribute to the world in which we live.  We may not know what it is, we may never know.  We touch others every day, in so many ways.  Something we say or do can have a lasting effect on another and help to shape the way they live their life which in turn can have a lasting effect on another, and so on.  It is a chain reaction.  Don’t be the weakest link.