The Corruption of Tolerance

          Many people ask one another what the greatest moral issue is in America. They get in arguments and debates until a few radicals – activists for narrow-mindedness – pull out their individual beliefs and religions, and hold them like guns to each other’s heads. Swiftly the mainstream of society jumps into the center of the fray, screaming for tolerance. “You are no longer allowed to stand up for your beliefs,” society seems to advocate. Suddenly the pill of “tolerance” is force-fed to children in schools, and to parents at home or work. Because of a few radicals, all ideals are silenced. The only respectable belief is one that challenges no one else’s. In other words, the only respectable belief is none at all. In asking the question of what is the greatest moral issue, the answer seems to present itself: perhaps the greatest moral issue is tolerance, for it breeds indifference, and indifference, apathy.

          Tolerance sounds beautiful. It suggests that all religions and beliefs can coexist peacefully and respectfully. It preaches that everyone should be open-minded, and most importantly that no one should ever force a religion or ideology upon another person. The problem with this ideology is that it is often forced upon everyone the moment they engage someone of a deviating belief. In fear of conflict, tolerance is shoved upon just about everyone by society at large. What the word “tolerance” means, and what is expected of many people is quite different. While the traditional sense of the word suggests that we simply tolerate and respect other ideas and beliefs, what it now seems to mean is that society will no longer tolerate us unless we conform to its tolerant image.

          One of the problems this forced “tolerance” causes is indifference. The radical believers and philosophical advocates are the ones who forced the “tolerant” hand, yet they are the only ones who seem to be unaffected by its power and sway. The people who are affected the most by the tolerance movement are those who dislike conflict and disunity; in other words, nearly everyone. We hear the beautiful-sounding tolerance ideal, and we swallow it eagerly. Suddenly everyone is afraid of speaking up for their beliefs, in fear that people around them will label them “intolerant.” Tolerance becomes the only belief that is tolerated, but it is a shallow belief. It silences discussions that are essential for intellectual development and analytical contemplations of reality. It keeps people from sharing ideas that might upset others. Those who are “intellectual cowards” strongly advocate the tolerance movement because it protects them from intelligent engagement. They can label people “intolerant bigots” and it protects them from having to challenge or refute an idea. But what is the purpose of deep-thinking if there is no one to test it against? Eventually, we become indifferent to anything that might upset other people, and we go from “tolerant” to something called “acceptant.”

          Acceptance is a step beyond tolerance in that we not only allow others of a different worldview and mindset common respect, but we adopt their ideas and decide to believe them. Acceptance is different from tolerance, for tolerance requires differing opinions, while acceptance blurs out any distinctions. We decide that since we cannot really debate new, deep ideas, or discuss the possible fallacies of old ones, we will simply accept everything as a possibility. We could say we stand for everything, but our “possible beliefs” are so conflicting, that in reality we stand for nothing. This acceptance of everything destroys our ideological zeal, until we no longer care about what is truly correct. By accepting everyone’s beliefs but our own, we have adopted an apathetic mentality that is destructive to our society, and to the entire world.

          Apathy kills countries. Apathy silences all but the most radically devoted believers, and holds the door for them while they manipulate and take control of the world. Apathy tells citizens not to vote for whom they believe is the right candidate. Unable to consult their moral compasses, those that do vote base their decisions on whomever can give them the most immediate material gain, for apathy breeds laziness. Laziness begs for everything to be free. Communism answers.

          In the midst of the apathetic masses, those few radicals who refuse to recant continue to wage wars of ideological propaganda, and because of their radical nature, they do it in the most intolerant ways. Churches picket funerals of soldiers, children shoot or stab fellow classmates, and hijackers turn our airliners into bullets and wrecking machines, slaughtering thousands of unsuspecting – and quite tolerant – people. Is tolerance the answer to intolerance? Or does it simply lull us all into a lazy, false sense of security while we are repeatedly deceived and destroyed?

          Conceivably, the greatest moral predicament in America is the tolerance movement, for it not only differs greatly from authentic tolerance, but it encourages the apathy of the temperate and destroys the very heart of morality. Originally referring to someone who stands for and upholds his or her beliefs, the word “morality” is now traded for words such as “bigot,” and “hateful.” While the tolerance movement hypocritically forces their twisted version of tolerance upon those who oppose them, cruelly labels the devout and spreads intellectual cowardice and apathy, the word “morality” appears to lose its meaning altogether. When tolerance gives birth to acceptance, we allow this destruction of morality, because we accept it. Perhaps the greatest question to ask ourselves is this: If tolerance is the enemy, can it be toppled? Or could it be that upsetting this ideal is not, in fact, to be tolerated?

Irresponsibility and Logical Consistency

          There is much cognitive unconformity in our country, and it weighs heavily on the minds of the intellectual. To try to smooth out the ideological wrinkles in today’s society is a harrowing task, and it often lands us in a state of mental frustration, for no matter how well we can rearrange the tangled mess of differing and combating worldviews and analyze them subjectively and critically, there often remains an underlying fallacious cesspool of contradictions. When we arrive at a state of moderate understanding of the cause of this effect, we may see that the core of most issues in America – including ideological contradiction – is the pervasive lack of responsibility, which is manifested in our government and in personal beliefs, and is reflected in the resulting society that is created.

          It is most probable that irresponsibility begins at a completely physical, fleshly level. It usually comes from poor parenting and then grows in the young child, so that by the time the child is older and thinking for his- or herself, they have been instilled with the idea that they are entitled to whatever they want at whatever cost. In fear of social distaste, parents have been known to shush their children in public instead of openly disciplining them, have principals change their children’s grade to a passing one if they fail an important test, and keep other adults from rebuking their children too. In fear of other adults looking down on them for having undisciplined, out-of-control children, the parents will subconsciously make the fear a reality by failing raise their children to learn to take responsibility for their actions. By the time they are older, the idea that they can do whatever they want and get away with it will be cemented deep within them, for they have done so their entire childhood, and it has become their way of life.

          Eventually this idea spreads out into different regions of the person, until the irresponsibility is not only physical but it is spiritual as well. Religions that suggest judgment for immoral behavior are shunned, for to assume such beliefs would force the person to take responsibility for their actions. New beliefs are invented to suite their desires, for they indeed have itching ears. Those who are unfamiliar with religion will be repulsed by it and build their own religions to make man the god. They say they are atheists for they do not believe that god exists, but unfortunately they are misinformed as to what “god” means. In truth, they have made themselves gods, and they worship themselves on a daily basis. They are filled with a selfish idea of freedom which unrealistically demands all of the benefits of “freedom,” but ignores the heavy cost, for freedom is never free. They put a new name on hedonism, and they call it “Evolution.” They use this theory to crown themselves kings of their “own” realm, pretending with all their might that this world was not created. They are forced to shut their eyes tightly to the obvious majesty of Creation lest they see the truth and be forced to turn to a God who demands justice for their immorality. Since they are forced to accept the implausible in order to support the immoral, it gives birth to a whole new level of negligence: intellectual irresponsibility.

          Because their way of living demands blindness in order to function, their way of thinking must demand the same thing; this creates incredibly fallacious attitudes in society. They begin to adopt new customs, and take offense at anything moral. They use this “offensive” morality to excuse the irrationally “inoffensive” immorality. They begin to take pride in their sins, and pretend that their biblically unacceptable ways of living are not harming anyone. People who are hurt or alarmed by the growth of sin, and stand uprightly for the morally just are called “hateful bigots.” The intellectual irresponsibility creates an illogical laziness and foolishness in which the only reliable means of debate is childish name-calling and hypocritical labelling.

          This intellectual laziness breeds hypocrisy by fostering an acceptance of fallacious arguments out of convenience to support new movements, which eventually end up contradicting their own claims. For example, “independent” feminists insist on complete self-reliance, and then the very same people are heard complaining about the lack of chivalry in the world, not understanding how they are the very ones who exterminated it. Men who were raised to treat women with honor are not always ready for a woman who disdains or turns her nose up at the hand of respectful courtesy he offers to her. Many unsuspecting men are easily discouraged from trying to polish pearls that claim to be rocks. This illogical demand for chivalry then scorn when it appears is just one example of the illogical thought-processes caused by irresponsible intellectuals.

          Another example would be evolutionist lawmakers who spend unfathomable amounts of resources on American schooling, forcing all children to learn explicitly evolutionist-slanted propaganda. The very same people often are the ones with the audacity to call Christians “intolerant, hateful bigots” for “forcing” our beliefs on others, usually when we are merely standing up for our own. Christians and other religious peoples are required to be “tolerant” of Evolutionists teaching their beliefs to our children, but they are intolerant of us sharing our beliefs with them. This double standard is almost unthinkable, which suggests a consensually intellectual blindness. This thoughtlessness is perhaps the result of irresponsibility of thought, by irrationally and desperately struggling to maintain a lifestyle in which there is absolute entitlement and an absolute lack of responsibility. Perhaps the logical fallacies of society’s “best” could all begin in the stores with the indiscipline of our children.  

Serial Painters

     Wouldn’t it be terrible if we were all on display? If we were all forced to compete in a never-ending contest and we had no say in what was being judged about us? Wouldn’t it be terrible if there were an impossibly high standard to reach, a picture of perfection, even if no one had control over meeting this standard? If we were hated and demeaned every time we failed to reach this standard?

     Wouldn’t it be terrible if the judge were an artist, and every time he judged, he took his brush and painted us a picture of how awful we look, comparing us to the standard of perfection, highlighting our supposed flaws, and exaggerating them like a caricature? If the artist gave us the picture he had painted, told us to pin it to our chests like a derogatory sign? If we had to carry this sign with us wherever we went, and every time we looked in the mirror, instead of our faces, we just saw the hideously cruel painting? Wouldn’t it be terrible?

     Wouldn’t it be horrible if the painter began targeting children? If he took his brush and smeared gaudy strokes on his canvas, until he had fabricated an image of humiliation for the child to wear? Wouldn’t it be horrible if other children stapled the image to the child’s chest, ensuring it never fell away, mocking his every awkward step, ungainly appearance, unsightly birthmark? If they attacked and sneered at his shortness and physical weakness, or laughed at her late-blossoming womanhood? If they kicked down the smaller and weaker, with every kick adding a stroke or smear to the dirty, ugly painting? Wouldn’t it be horrible?

     Wouldn’t it be ghastly if the painter went after young women? If he dipped his cruel brush into his horrid ink, and streaked up his punishing canvas an image of ugliness for the young woman to wear? Wouldn’t it be ghastly if the painter told her she was fat, awkward, and ugly? If he communicated through his twisted masterpiece complete disgust and revulsion at her inability to match the image of perfection, and how perfectly worthless she was for it? What if she started believing it? Wouldn’t it be ghastly if other women grabbed their own brushes too? If they drew attention away from their own terrible canvases by smearing mud and hate on the loathsome paintings of others? Wouldn’t it be ghastly if they laughed and mocked and hated, with each sneer and jibe adding an ugly array of bruise-like blotches to the young woman’s mauled and mangled painting? What if she couldn’t see her beauty? What if when she looked in the mirror, the painting hid her loveliness? If she forgot who she truly was because of whom she was afraid of being? If she was afraid of being herself, because the painter told her that only the ones that match the Perfect Canvas are beautiful? If she believed his lies, what then? Would it not be ghastly?

     Wouldn’t it be evil if the painter directed his venom toward emotional men? If he sloshed some paint across the canvas, streaking and smearing with furious hatred, manufacturing an image of weakness? Wouldn’t it be evil if he told sensitive men that they were not truly men if they shed any tears? That experiencing emotional pain was detrimental to becoming a man, and showing emotion earned a “man up!” Wouldn’t it be evil if these emotional men were forced to wear a canvas, a sign that said “I am not a man”? If, in the shadow of their canvases, they accepted the lie that they were weak, childish, and pathetic, wouldn’t it be evil?

     Wouldn’t it be terrible if we recognized the truth? If we understood that we are the painters, we are the serial killers of society. If our words were our hateful paintings, and our tongues the diabolical brushes? If our standards of bravery, beauty, and manliness were just a Perfect Canvas, and our judgmental comparisons were our smears of permanent hatred? Wouldn’t it be evil if our society was homicidal? If children destroyed each other, young women destroyed each other, and grown men destroyed each other? If our words caused men, women, and children to look in the mirror with loathing and see only our evil pictures of something they are not? Wouldn’t it be terrible, ghastly, and evil if these things were real, if they were true, and if you and I were serial killing painters of hatred?

No it would not be.

For it already is. 

Freedom is Slavery

     Freedom, like many other topics, does not rest in the physical alone, but rather it is also richly alive in the emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects of our person. These aspects shape our view of the word, and greatly change its meaning depending on our focus; if we are referring to the emotional aspect, freedom could mean, for example, being able to love whom we will. On the other hand, if we are referring to intellectual freedom, it could conceivably mean we have simply arrived at a state of inner mental peace. Though everyone has a different idea of what the word “freedom” means, they are often mistakenly thinking of the opposite, especially in the case of physical and spiritual freedom.

     Freedom is not free. To establish liberty from any sort of oppression requires liberation – a typically lethal emancipation, quite often through the death of those who desire it the most and fight for it the hardest. The price of freedom is often paid for in human lives, and consumers of freedom do not generally appreciate the sacrifice that has been made to ensure that it yet lives. Freedom does not mean that everything is free, but rather that there is recognition and payment of the enormous and costly price.

     Physical freedom does not mean everyone can do as he or she pleases, because freedom requires a balance. To remove restrictions on society would upset the balance, until eventually freedom would belong to only the most powerful or resourceful people. If one man’s freedom interferes with another man’s, it is no longer freedom, but rather it is oppression; it is the beginning of a terrible struggle for ever-changing power which is never wholly attainable.

     Freedom is not safety. Freedom is not feeling comfortable and stable; indeed, those feelings are only indications of a false reality, for the world is neither comfortable nor stable. Rather, freedom is acknowledging the instability of reality, and making prudent preparation for an unstable future; indeed, the moment we cherish our safety above all else is the moment we lose our freedom. If we want to surround ourselves with walls, we must remember this: walls do not simply keep evil out, but they also keep the innocent in; when we allow or give another entity the job of protecting us, we also give that entity our liberty, for we have surrendered to them our power. The balance is skewed, and freedom is destroyed. To allow an almighty hand to surround us is to admit our complete trust and utter slavery in that being or power.

     At a physical level, freedom is hard to achieve, and harder to hold onto, for when we have been pampered and spoiled by the pleasure freedom affords us, we forget the cost and are pacified into a false sense of security. We are so coddled by our safety and comfort that we would give up our freedoms to maintain that sense of well-being, not understanding that as soon as we lose our freedoms, we will not have the power to retain our former luxuries, and will be at the mercy of whoever is providing our security. In desiring the comfort of safety, we would trade the freedoms that bring us that comfort in the first place, and in the process we lose both.

     Physical freedom is quite different than spiritual freedom, but the former aids us in understanding the latter. Indeed, without physicality, we would never arrive at a proper understanding of any spiritual concepts, for we are physically-oriented beings with an inherent spiritual ignorance. Therefore, it is unsurprising when we see physical reflections of spirituality in many facets of our lives, including the concept of freedom.

     Spiritual freedom is similar to physical freedom in that it is not free: it comes with a monumental price. The greatest difference being perhaps that the price has already been paid, and we are expected to make use of this great sacrifice, lest it be in vain.

     Spiritual freedom is challenging in demand, but fulfilling in reward. It demands the complete abstinence of immorality in order to find a unity with a Just God, all the while recognizing the inability of sinful humans to achieve a complete abstinence. Spiritual freedom is irrationally fulfilling, because it is a reward of absolute excellence granted to those who could never deserve it, only attainable due to the incalculable sacrifice on the part of the reward-Giver. It is beautiful madness, conceived by the Creator of the World – a type of magnificent madness that we refer to as “Love.” Spiritual freedom is the reward given to the dirtiest, ugliest, poorest, evilest, and most unworthy, by means of a sacrifice made by The Most High, whose only reward is the appreciation of the aforementioned who could never fully appreciate it. It is unfair, illogical, irrational, unreasonable, and perfectly, wonderfully free for We the Filthy who were/are so evil we required the Great Sacrifice to take place.

     The most illogical and unreasonable in this situation, however, is not the God who made such an incalculable sacrifice for the incredibly undeserving, but rather it is the undeserving who does not accept the free reward that comes as a result. This is perhaps the epitome of irrationality, and it defeats any arguments against God’s aptitude to govern the World, for we have only proven by discarding unearned, everlasting, priceless gold that we are far more intellectually inept than any other being, especially the Creator of the Universe.

     Perhaps the most complex aspect of freedom of any sort is that we must refer to it in an abstract and relative manner, for absolute freedom paradoxically does not truly exist. To become free entirely of one entity requires servitude to another: to maintain civil freedoms, one must become subject to the laws, otherwise all rights would dissolve. In a similar manner, to become spiritually free of sin and our fleshy selves, we must become slaves or servants to God, Who then grants us liberation. We must choose, therefore, which bondage is more eternally beneficial, and which is more detrimental in the end; we must choose which freedom is closest to the unattainable absolute, and which freedom contradicts itself the least.

     But we do have a choice, and perhaps this is freedom: to choose our own masters, to choose our enslavers, to decide to whom we give our chains and to whom we refuse ownership. Perhaps true freedom is just choice slavery. 

Our Friendship

Once beside the forest river

On a gloomy night

There walked a pretty princess

Her face was fine and bright

Her lips were lush and red

Her dress was fringed in lace

But her beauty was not glad

For her tears slid down her face

Her eyes shone brightest blue

Her skin was scarred and marked

But her battle was more within

Inside her soul was dark

A warrior along the way

Saw her from afar

His heart leapt and started 

For he thought she was a star

He thought she was an angel

He looked through her outer stress

He didn't know "An angel?" 

Was such an accurate guess

He didn't see her tears

But he saw her beautiful feet

He followed her from a distance

Both desperate and afraid to meet

He noticed in the distance

There lurked an angry beast

A mad monster with mangy fur

Hunting for a midnight feast

The warrior unclasped his sword

And though she didn't see him

The warrior decided then

That he would slay her demon

He stalked the angry beast

The hunter became the hunted

The princess, unaware of this

Turned and the trail was shunted

The monster charged his prey

The princess screamed in fear

As her very worst nightmare

From her dreams had reappeared

The prince then charged the monster

Berating his lack of speed

He knew that he would die inside

If the monster caused her to bleed

The prince slashed his sword

He parried and he thrust

The monster seemed most elusive

And slipped through his fingers like dust

It was as if the prince's sword

Was trying vanquish water

For the monster would not die

And then the cruel beast got her!

The mad prince grabbed the monster

And threw him into the river

But the monster would not leave

Though his image seemed to quiver

"Die, thou mangy scum!" He yelled

The princess grabbed his arm

"Hush, my Prince," she whispered

"Don't do him any harm."

The prince was most confused

"But the monster mustn't harm thee"

The princess smiled sadly

"His quarry was not me"

The prince looked back in the river

In the monster's direction

But the only thing he saw in there

Was his own perplexed reflection

He gasped and dropped his sword

He fell down on his knees

The wind mirrored his howling 

As it whispered through the trees

"I'm just an angry monster

"I'm nothing but a beast!"

But the princess took his hands

And pointing to the west and east

She looked him in the eyes

"My hands are spread wide and true

"The distance from the east to west

"Is less than I love you"

Tears rolled down the monster's cheeks

As he looked in the princess's eyes

She grabbed his face in her slender hands

"You've been believing lies

"They want you to be weak

"So they tell you to be tough

"They trade their only source of love

"Pretending muscle's enough.

"But it's not okay to hurt

"And feel like you can't cry

"It's not okay to want a hug

"And have people question why

"It's not okay to be so fearless

"And yet terribly afraid

"I'm so disgusted and depressed

"At the lies society's made.

"You ARE a man, dear Monster

"I don't care if you bite

"I don't care about your tears

"For you care about doing right."

The princess then fell silent

The monster was in awe

The princess had shown the monster love

And no one even saw

The princess saved his life

Because she actually cared

She loved selflessly a beast

When no other human dared

I'm here to pen this story

Because the princess is so brave

And please know this story's true

For I'm the man she saved.

Happy Birthday to my very best friend; thank you so much for all you've done for me. I love you! 

Hospital of Hate

If truthful words were Felbatol  

That helps prevent a seizure

Honesty is presently

Still the best procedure

So unclothe the judgment of your mind

Enter the mental ward while you’re sane

Not the floor for the senseless patient

But the hospital in your brain

Facts are often more vivid to you

When you’re walking down these halls

And it’s easier to believe the danger

With the nail-marks on the walls

On the first floor you find a man

Who peers through the windowpane

The door to his room is rusty and heavy

And padlocked and held by bloody chains

The man is not insane at all

But the hospital fears his anger

They correct what is abnormal

Based on confusion instead of danger

But what is it that mankind fears?

Is it not simply the unknown?

If they cannot wrap their minds around it

You’re evil if you’re not a clone.

Fear of nonexistent evil

This will lead to hate

The man in the ward is subject to testing

And dies on experimental plates

Across the hall is another man

The Doctor hates the coward

For the man is misinterpreted

And then by the ward, devoured

The Doctor doesn’t help him

He diagnoses in haste

The cowardly are sickening

So the Doctor cleans up the waste

The hospital is full of these

The ward is run in fear

The men that fill the rooms and bags

Are killed for shedding tears

Mercilessly the Doctor kills

The hospital suppresses hope

Illegally the victims slain

Lucky are those who find a rope

Before the Doctor finds them

And experiments on their forms

The hospital wherein we walk

Is a graveyard called a “dorm”

Understand the distinction

As we snap out of this dream

The haunted halls of the twisted Doctor

Are more real than they likely seem

Keep the judgment from your mind

As I continue this rhetorical mixture

Instead of acrylics, I used the likeness

Of a mental ward to paint this picture

But do not be disillusioned

Those nails that scratched the walls

Are still quite real, though in reality

It’s human souls that are being mauled

On the one hand you find a man

Who shakes his fists in the rain

The door to his room is the nighttime air

And people’s happiness is his bane

This veteran is not insane at all

But the world still fears his anger

They avoid him because he is abnormal

Based on confusion instead of danger

But what is it that mankind fears?

Is it not simply the unknown?

The veteran is treated like a dog

Too poor and dirty to be thrown a bone

Fear of nonexistent evil

This will lead to hate

The veteran is nameless and forgotten

And dies in pain by a subway gate

On the other hand is another man

Society hates the “coward”

The man is “too emotional”

Then by the world, devoured

Society doesn’t want him

It judges him in haste

The mark of manhood is not feeling

If you do, you are a waste

Society is full of these

The world is run in fear

These men that fill the body-bags

Are killed for shedding tears

Mercilessly society slays

The world suppresses hope

Unconsciously the victims slain

Lucky are they who find a rope

Before society burns them

And to their pain shows mirth

Society in which we live

Is just a graveyard we call “Earth.”

Y.O.L.O.?

You say “You only live once”

You don’t understand just how true

Is this phrase on your lips as you waste It All

Look what society’s done to you!

You don’t understand the ramifications

Or the consequences that this brings

So the life that you “live” is now wasted

You live in cesspits and say you’re a king

Those whom you love? Forgotten

Those you call “friends”? Forsaken

Those whom you wanted to guard with your life?

Because of your apathy – taken.

You say “You only live once”

But so do your dearest friends.

So why not instead of downing the vodka

Thank God for the blessings before they end?

You never know what will happen

And won’t if you can’t even see

You don’t know how many chances you get

So tell them you love them before they must leave

Show them you care or forget it

You only live once and then you die

Those whom you label your “loved ones”

Better feel it before it’s “Goodbye”

You say “You only live once”

And then you prove that it doesn’t matter

You get the option of living or dying

And then you fixate on the latter

You have the choice to act like you care

About more than your material wealth

You have the choice to say “I love you”

More than you love yourself

So if you only live once

And if your friends do too

Maybe stop wasting the time you have

In the name of this poor excuse

You say “You only live once”

But don’t act like you truly care

You live like your life is a video game

And you have countless more lives to spare

Lovely friends are roses

Death is winter decay

Flowers wither and so do friends

Is “I love you” THAT hard to say?

Are we not just cowardly actors?

We hide behind masks from our tears

We can’t stand the thought of perpetual death

So we live in perpetual fear

You say “You only live once”

And then existence is voided

But there is something called eternity

And it cannot be avoided

But bad days and decisions transpire

Even the earth is attacked by comets

A fool goes back to his misery

Like a dog goes back to his vomit

If you have so little time left

Why do you let your thoughts wander?

If you only have one life to live

Tell me why it’s already squandered

You say “You only live once”

Prep time for eternity: never

Foolish! Compared to the days you will spend

Time for the future: forever

I cannot change your ways

I can’t always make you see

Doing whatever you want - binding

Having a Purpose - you’re free

You only live once, then its forever

Don’t waste your time focused on hate

You aren’t the only one who’s going to die

Tell people you love them before it’s too late.