You are to be witnesses unto me. I did this for thirty years.

It was a journey that took me through a wide variety of people deeper than mere acquaintance: Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, agnostics, atheists, the non-religious, and those who are “spiritual”.

It includes Caucasians, Latinos, African-Americans, and American-Chinese.

It includes the north, south, west, east, and midwest of the United States.

It includes rich and poor, educated and uneducated, conservatives and liberals, the young and the old, the sane and the insane, women and men.

It also includes a few people who are none of the above, those who have transcended any and all labels in favor of relationships.

From my experience of being a man of peace in a house of war, I can definitively agree with the poet Maya Angelou. “We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.”

Some of that likeness is a good thing. The rest is going to destroy us all, not long from now.

What I share here are the pearls I found throughout my journey, twenty years of chronicling during a thirty-year journey. Outside of a few pieces published on a blog lasting a year, none of these have seen the light of day.

I don’t write for the likes, the shares, or the clicks. I don’t write for money, and I’m certainly not doing any marketing.

I do it because someone might like these parting words before we are all brought to ruin.