Where to begin?
How to explain?
I have devoted the better part of my life to discovering and propagating objective ethical absolutes. The Greatest Mind in Human History has been my guide in this, as in all things. Objectivism and the genius of Ayn Rand have been my touchstone, my anchor in choppy seas, my baseline, my passion, my life, my very soul.
But all things change.
I met a wonderful person, a person who has made me feel more alive than any before, a person who has opened me up to joys and wonders previously unimagined. What are the sterile consolations of philosophy, even a rigorously Objective and utterly irrefutable philosophy, compared to the warmth of human companionship, caring, dare I say it . . . love? I have refuted many forms of love (Why women prefer so-called "assholes", Gay Studies), but I find that in the last analysis, love is a good and necessary thing, and the love of one man for another is no different, no less worthy, than any other variety.
Yes, love. Love, and, what's more, community. Steve has opened not only my heart, but my mind: At the Phish concert, Steve gave me the little white pill, and I partook, and I am now one with all things. I have renounced much -- my vast financial holdings, my flunkies, my degraded lickspittles -- but I have gained more: a little weltanschauung, a little gemeinschaft, a whole lot of love . . . I am not an island. No man is an island. My comrades and I share all things, and we do not count our change. Property is meaningless when all "individuals" are merely different tendrils of the same great oversoul. Property is nothing but a set of chains that keep us apart.
I want to say to you that ego is not the be-all and end-all. I want to tell you, I want to grab your lapels and tell you that in Steve's arms I have found a greater thing than even the incomparable Ms. Rand could ever give me: Love. The brotherhood of Man.
My heart, my soul, my new life.
|
