Happy Birthday

It's very strange being 100 years old. A new experience for me! You may think 100-year-olds don't enjoy new experiences, but that couldn't be further from the truth. The reality is, centenarians are the new youth.

Once upon a time (probably most of you weren't born yet), young people were the ones who instigated social change, who heralded new ideas and dreamed dreams for the future. Young people were the artists, writers and musicians who paved the way for new thought. They imagined a world where all people lived together in harmony, where children of the world belonged to and were cared for by every one of us, and where kindness and goodwill, especially for the weak, were the guiding force. That is difficult to comprehend, isn't it, you who have lived in a world whose leaders are liars and thieves, where greed is the guiding tenet of society and where the sick and hungry are cursed and left to die.

But take heart. Let go of your grip on all that you possess, release your fear and you will see a new vision on the horizon. You will be spectators of the most complete and stunning transformation the world has ever seen. It will bring with it an aromatic and beautiful atomic blast of change so devastatingly and annihilatingly complete that in an instant you will die, be reborn and for the first time feel something new. Call it your mother. Call it love. Call it the breast that suckles all living things. Call it you. Call it me.

And remember, it is brought to you by default and with no strings attached, by the new youth. The babies. The poets. The lovers. The wearers of rags. The misunderstood. The schizophrenic. The lonely. The distracted. The sublime. The centenarians.