1. My name?
2. It doesn't matter: there are many others like me.
3. I work to pay the rent, to meet the expenses of a respectable life,
4. I laugh and cry like any other human being,
5. I love and hate like other living creatures.
6. I watch the transformations of the era,
7. our progress in science and technology,
8. the cyclic succession of governments and sovereigns,
9. the evolution of laws, society, sentiments,
10. persons who leave us, new lives that blossom.
11. In this short life, fortune has granted me a mind of my own,
12. and today - a day no different from many others - I feel like writing a message, to you,
13. a protagonist like me on this stage.
14.  
15. By degrees I admire this symphony of colors performed by billions of people,
16. and I can't help rejoicing for each form of life that surrounds us,
17. despite the daily difficulties and the adversities.
18. We're surrounded by so much sadness,
19. and at times we're blind or we pretend not to see,
20. absorbed in our own misfortunes, we're often unaware of the person sitting next to us.
21. All he wants perhaps is a friendly word.
22. But in spite of the indifference and selfishness, I love you all the same.
23.  
24. We continue to chase dreams of wealth or fame,
25. neglecting that whose value is real.
26. I can gaze at gems and jewels as if they were worthless stones,
27. and cherish the smile on a face like a priceless treasure.
28. Material goods cause no problems;
29. problems arise when we build our lives on worthless objects.
30. I watch the incessant hammer of advertising,
31. pounding people into debt for a new TV or a supply of diapers.
32. But whether you're on a 50-inch screen or wrapped in dirty diapers, I love you all the same.
33.  
34. An honest job, a good salary, a future you can count on.
35. In an ocean of supply and demand whipped by storms of contracts and lay-offs,
36. you sail to survive and to avoid ending up like the captain.
37. Ranting little men with colored ties shrewdly move tiny ivory pawns.
38. "Knight to B6. Check."
39. Faceless men allow themselves be dragged far and wide, clutching a wooden stump of wood.
40. "We're sorry, but we're going to have to let you go."
41. "But I have a family!"
42. "Good, they'll give you a hand."
43. Dedicating whole days to reaching a line that divides earth and sky,
44. rejoicing in that dedication, which renders us useful and gives us a purpose.
45. I find no joy in spending these days for a respectable life:
46. I'll never get them back.
47. I'll never be able to use them to watch the world, to learn, to grow, to live.
48. But even with loans and mortgages, I love you all the same.
49.  
50. "Hey, man, can you spare some change?"
51. "Get a job."
52. Unkempt beard and shabby clothes...
53. "Get away from him, he could be sick."
54. Our eyes fall on billions of lives carved on impassive stumps;
55. it doesn't occur to us that whatever its shape,
56. one stump is the same as the others.
57. "Watch out, he may be on drugs."
58.  
59. I walk along the sunny street, watching the laughter,
60. the tears,
61. the rage,
62. the madness.
63. I search for what it is that distinguishes us, one from another,
64. but I can't find it.
65. Is it the eyes? Or maybe the nose?
66. "Hey, look at the color of his skin, he's gotta be a terrorist."
67. "Weird, his blood was as red as mine."
68. But whether you live on a park bench or in a castle, I love you all the same.
69.  
70. Religions, free masonries, cults, politics...
71. There's strength in numbers, but they also say you're born and you die alone.
72. Groups founded on ideas tirelessly clash,
73. brawling, bullying one another to attain material supremacy.
74. We're a single stream of energy:
75. they can block our flow,
76. deprive us of all we have, and reduce us to slaves,
77. but what we are will remain unchanged.
78. But even though you insist on deciding for us, I love you all the same.
79.  
80. I gaze at monumental buildings, constructed as a symbol and defended by armed guards,
81. like a raft in the ocean, at the mercy of the laws that govern nature.
82. We're free to believe in whatever we want, free to choose.
83. "What a disaster, our homes are destroyed! The Lord will help us though."
84. "He can't: he's at the window, preaching prenuptial chastity and fondling the body of a young boy."
85. The Church, Mecca, the Temple: each insists on having its say, each wants its own history to prevail.
86. But despite your crusades and your ethnic hates, I love you all the same.
87.  
88. Interminable conflicts, deafening flashes of light that rip through thousands of voices.
89. Endless battles waged to obtain something,
90. or to obtain nothing.
91. This one supports the rifle-bearing youths of his nation;
92. that one lies in the streets with flowers on their chests.
93. "God-damned pacifists! Can't they see we're the ones who've brought the peace."
94. "Dad! I'm afraid!"
95. "Don't worry. These bombs, our lives...they're necessary to keep the peace."
96. Peace...
97. A white dove gliding over a mushroom cloud.
98. But whether you're a civilian or an officer, I love you just the same.
99.  
100. Mere words strive to express a thought, a flash of lightening in the darkness of existence.
101. Political fanatic? Religious zealot?
102. Neither one: just vital energy, here in your midst and perhaps in you as well.
103. My hope is that these words will be read and grasped,
104. by at least one person.
105. So you, the reader of these words, are for me a source of pride, and I love you just as much as the others.
106.  
107. We smile, we wink, we laugh, we cry, we mock, we shout, we despair, we rage, we stuff our bellies, we steal, we kill...we love...
108. I know now that things exist solely within our relationships, objective and subjective,
109. We're all bound together, one to another.
110. Day cannot exist without night,
111. man is nothing without woman,
112. we would not exist without them.
113. We are all one single thing.
114. An immense and infinite sigh, resonating through the eternity of time.
115. If this truth reaches at least one of us on the wings of these words, my existence will not have been in vain.
116. Each day, I awake and give thanks to nature for my existence and for all that surrounds me,
117. in spite of the pain that these tired eyes continue to absorb.
118. Soon, I know, my energy will be exhausted or transferred to fuel another fire
119. and the visions of my eyes will then be passed on to others.
120. These words are an attempt to provide these others with a stage for enacting the greatest masterpiece of all times.
121. So you, the reader of these words: avoid dwelling on the name of the person who wrote them or what he hopes to obtain,
122. This message was written by you,
123. thanks to you these words have found the courage to come into being,
124. and for this reason, I love you as i love myself.
125. You ask yourself how we can give future generations a better world.
126. Remember: we can be deprived of all things,
127. but our love can never perish.
128. It's this that renders us extraordinary.
129.  
130. To all sentient beings.
131. To all insentient beings.
132. To you, because despite the tears, I love you