Free

It is so odd to go from a place of absolute freedom to one of significantly less. I am a beast of freedom, it’s what I crave and what I need. So this confinement, it is stunting. Though one never knows what they have until it is gone. But when the imprisonment ends, what then? Will I be insane and run through life, once more a beast of freedom? Or can I finally slow, stop, take a breath? It seems a horrifying notion, to stop moving and stand still, to allow closeness. But there is always curiosity.

Run

I don’t know why, but just sometimes I want to run away. To flee from commitment, from responsibility. I used to say that I didn’t want to grow up, but that’s not true anymore. Age doesn’t scare me now, just every guest it brings along with it into my life. I can’t escape it, the pressures of life. But I do not feel equipped to deal with them. I’ve craved freedom for so long, and now that I finally have it, I’m terrified of it’s light being snuffed out. As such, I’m almost completely commitment-phobic now, in every sense of the word. That’s not healthy, that isn’t right. I can’t just run from everything and everyone forever, due to some misplaced fear of them stealing my light. No man is an island, not even the invincible persona I’ve built up in my head who just safeguards a frightened boy. I can’t keep guarding that boy, I can’t keep listening to him, because all he wants is to run forever and leave the world at his heels. 

Just keep following the heartlines on your hand. Keep it up. I know you can.

Proceed with a pure heart, kind words and strong ideals and you will be rewarded in this life and the next.

One day I’m going to walk off into the sunset. I’ll hold out my hand and feel the touch of another. The safety as my fingers are squeezed. My heart will beat faster, I won’t be alone and I’ll smile knowing that everything will be ok, from now on.

“So I want to end as I began, with a vision of two futures.”

Dear Future Generations.

Even as I put pen to paper I am unsure as to whether I should be writing a letter of apology or of praise. I’m sure history remembers this decade as the tipping point. The moment where our world crumbled into ruin or rose above the challenges we faced. Despite the current reign of recession, racism, discrimination, famine, war, terrorism and global warming, I still have so much hope for the future. These problems we face today are great, there is no denying that and I’m sure history remembers these difficulties. But they don’t leave me despairing at the thought of what tomorrow may bring. In my opinion mankind has the potential to not only overcome these problems but effectively eliminate them from our world. I truly hope that forty years from now such a utopia is not just a hope filled fantasy but fact.

The global recession is such a huge problem nowadays. Every sort of person from any walk of life is struggling to make ends meet. Long gone are the tiger economies that roared in the past and now people are left to wonder, will we ever live so intensely again? While this may not be the greatest threat humanity has ever faced it is the most pressing issue on everyone’s lips. You cannot blame people for trying to guard their pockets when they’ve got several other mouths to feed. My only hope is that by the year 2050 this recession has long since been resolved and is nothing more then a faded memory from what felt like an age ago. Hopefully money will flow much more freely than it does now and that the harsh lessons we are learning today, will never be forgotten.

Racism and discrimination too, are such huge issues today and much more personal for me as in some shape or form it is something I seem to see each and everyday.  I will never understand why people are so prone to hating their fellow human beings? Why are people so afraid of that which is ever so slightly different? I can only hope that forty years from now humanity has grown passed this fatal flaw. I hope that we have become one big human family and that we not only accept each others differences but learn from them too. No one should be discriminated against for any reason! No one should be subject to racial slurs! I sincerely hope you future generations have realised this and are working together to build a bright future for yourselves.

Global warming and famine frequent our news headlines nowadays along with war and terrorism. These problems seem to amplify one another. To solve one, you must solve them all. I know there must be a solution to them. But I cannot think of it yet. Please tell me by 2050 that someone has. Please tell me that people no longer starve in the streets as a ruthless tyrant wages war with rebels! Please tell me that natural disasters no longer strike cities with such force it takes them years to recover or that people no longer merely accept a suicide bomber as a common occurrence. 

When I cheer and celebrate to ring in the year of 2050 on a New Years Eve far from now I want to see a prosperous, healthy, world at peace. I want to see minorities breaking bread with former persecutors, I want to see a world where war, famine and global warming are a thing of the past. But unfortunately, to want and hope for something is not enough. As of this moment I am going to try my best to make my hopes a reality. But should I fail, I implore you to take up my mantle and strive to make this world a better place. Nothing is impossible, our hopes will become a reality!

Yours Sincerely

Shane Keane