in a brutal environment we have to strive for gentleness. it's perhaps the most important thing. in a culture that celebrates extreme violence and makes war as casually as trading on the stock market, we have to resist the tendency to hate like our culture wants us to. there's another condition that's deeper and beyond the control of the culture of hate. another condition where we celebrate life and rather than destroy, create. i've been affected hard by the evil of american politics and culture, but i know it's not made me hate, it's made me sad and angry, and it's made me realize that the expansion of money and absolute power is the lowest endeavor we can accomplish, and when we get this low we see the only thing lower is extinction. from there, before we go, we might see how to make something good grow on earth again.