A Prayer for My Friends

To everyone I've known, to all whom I have loved, to all who have loved me, let me send you out a greeting right now.

Thank you for talking to me and being cool people.

May we have many more years of stupid jokes and weird adventures! May we all continue to humbly accept the gift of life and to continue to explore the amusing and beautiful and pleasurable fruits of it. May it continue to yield new secrets to explore, and may we grow wise and reverent in the aura of its beauty.

I hope to see your children grow up healthy and wise and funny, and I hope your cleverness and courage grow even stronger in them, so that this ridiculous little endeavor called humanity can finally try its hand at co-existing in a peaceful and prosperous age.

As we take the mantle of power and responsibility in this place, let us remember the courage and discipline of our grandparents, who survived the Second World War and the Great Depression. Let us merge our love of diversity and equality with their toughness and resolve, so that we can solve the incredibly complex set of problems that we face today.

And as we grow old, let us retain our love of life, and our relationships with each other.

Amen