Thank You

        Our lives are a continuous series of experiences. The thoughts and decisions that influence our journeys, actions, hopes and fears shape these experiences, which in turn shape future thoughts and decisions. This is the personal circle of life that we are all spinning through. We are constantly shaping our identities during this process, re-inventing or re-affirming ourselves. Every person is born with the responsibility of crafting their own life using the mind and body they were born with. In this sense, we are all creative beings, entrusted with the most precious of raw materials, existence, and with that we can equal the creative works of any of the "masters" of the traditional arts.
        This is an inherently selfish quest (after all, I can only be given my own life to live, no one else's), and may lead you to believe that man is an inherently selfish being. This idea may not bother some, but it certainly bothers me, and luckily I have found a solution: other people. As I go around, crafting myself as I have described, I am thrown into contact with other people, themselves working on their own lives. For the time that contact is made (perhaps a few seconds, perhaps 50 years), two distinct lives intersect, a common experience is shared, and from that moment on, both lives have changed. We do not create the lives of others, but we do leave imprints, turning the paths of our lives (however slightly) closer to one another. I am the unique combination of my personal experiences and thoughts, and the experiences of those people I have been lucky enough to share this creative act with.
        We are what we do with our lives, a continuing journey of thoughts and experiences. And as we go through our lives we intersect with others, going through their individual journeys. It is through these interactions that one can find the measure of a man. The lives we touch and the way we touch them are as important as our own, because at each intersection, two lives become forever intertwined. As I finish this, I sit here the current (though hopefully by no means the final) version of JonAlf Dyrland-Weaver, and if you are reading this, then most likely there's a piece of you in me. Since I am fairly happy with the person I have created so far, I would like to thank you for doing your part. For my part, I promise to do the best I can with what I have of you.