Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I am. So. Fucking. Angry.

Perhaps it's god who's forsaken us, or perhaps we have forsaken ourselves, but I feel far too often that we have forgotten how to love.

I'm refusing any AI assistance in this writing and hoping it's for the best. At the same time, much of the impetus for this writing comes from AI, including my use thereof.

When I was a kid, merely 30 years ago, it was still the norm to play outside for hours untethered to either technology or my parents. I was lucky to grow up in safe place, and I'm thankful for it. My daughter is growing up in safe places as well for which I am equally thankful. It's unclear whether the phone in her pocket makes her any safer. I doubt it. Thirty years isn't so long, yet it feels like so much has changed, so quickly.

Empowerment is the feeling that comes from making a meaningful choice, but you wouldn't know what that is: you've never made one. Empowerment is taking your phone out of your pocket and asking it how to get to the grocery store. Empowerment is knowing how to drive to your friend's house without taking your phone with you at all. Empowerment is living in a safe community and being able to trust the neighbor you haven't met yet. Empowerment is bringing retribution to your enemies. Empowerment is winning. Empowerment is grace in defeat. Empowerment is knowing when to walk away from the game before it begins.

We live our lives in a time of great change, and we are sold a story that those changes empower us, that technology empowers us. It does. That's what makes it so dangerous: It's the truth. I have the time to binge watch 5 seasons of The Wire, and I have all the world's knowledge at my fingertips, yet I lack the capcity to understand it, even if I dedicated all my time to trying. So we're each more empowered now than at any point in history, and that's the truth, but is it the whole truth?

Am I really empowered in a system that provides Mark Zuckerberg with a megayacht while a homeless man dies of malnutrition?

Nearly all of us are closer to the homeless man, even if we avoid thinking that way. I make a six figure salary, but after rent and child support, I'm afraid to leave an unfulfilling job despite being "empowered" to make such a choice. Fuck that. I'm tired of the meager empowerment of progress without piety. I'm tired of feeling trapped by a half truth of empowerment by way of consumerism. I'm doing my best to make meaningful choices, and you should too. Each day I get closer; maybe someday I'll make one.

Stop letting a system deprive you of individual meaning. Choose love.

What I really mean to say is that true empowerment comes from moral expansion, from the courage to love without bound and the freedom to express that love without censure. Lifting people out of poverty is empowerment. Women's rights is empowerment. Minority rights are empowerment. Veganism is empowerment. Vulerability, self expression and self reliance are empowerment. Education is empowerment. Systems are empowering when they facillitate the empowerment of their component parts in a balanced way, and the current system lacks balance.

Grab the bull of life by the horns, wrestle it to the ground, and if you're so inclined, kick it in the face once or twice. Trust me, the bull will be fine, it's us I'm worried for. Demand the whole truth. Demand balance. Demand love.

Thank you for your consideration.

Much love always,

Z