This is absolutely beautiful—so beautiful I cried. I grant you that I am a bit emotional these days, but irregardlessly (the ‘ir’ and the ‘ly’ cancel each other out, so it’s cool) this piece is incredible.

Beautiful—Hopeful—Inspiring

“[S]tories became a large part of how we learn; they burn lessons into our memories. They become a part of how we remember, and we can remember almost everything. . . . I remember that I grew up loving mythology. I remember the story of the Titan, Atlas, who was also the god of astronomy. The original global positioning system, sending sailors safely home by telling them which constellations to keep starboard. He taught us about the stars; he did all this while he held up ours. Our pale blue dot. But Atlas is caught between two different tellings of his story. In the first he leads a rebellion against Olympus and is then sentenced to hold the heavens on his shoulders for eternity. In the second story, he is chosen to be the guardian of the pillars that hold up the earth and sky. I prefer the second story. It means that the world is not a punishment, but rather, a responsibility. But how can just one be charged with such a burden? How can just one be responsible for all this? . . . We are facing a Crisis. We dismiss the truth not because we can’t accept it, but because having to commit ourselves to change is a scary prospect for anybody. The most alarming part of the statement, ‘We are facing Crisis,’ isn’t the word ‘Crisis.’ It’s the word ‘We,’ because those two little letters take responsibility away from one and rest it squarely on the shoulders of everybody. We are Atlas now.”

Seriously, one of the best things I’ve ever heard. Absolutely awesome!