WLJ notes...

You made me put on my thinking cap, and isolate myself to perform self-analysis which encompases all of life. Heavy stuff, but stimulating, and essential if one is to understand existance, purpose, and the great unknown.

I found it necessary to read your analogies several times, so that I could even partially grasp where they might lead, and their critical nature to permit us to sort out where we have been, where we are now, and how the future may unfold. I do believe each one of us is the prime architect of our fate, and all other factors & influences but props along the way. I am able to see how you are reaching out in a way that I have not seen before, and not only are you correct to do this, but it is your responsibility.

The balloons are the engines for the boxes, and need to be tended & nourished to sustain their loads. The two are inseparable, for if either fails, disaster strikes. Trite, I know.

The largest & most important box is family, and therefore requires the largest baloon. Family is your ultimate refuge - friends are capable of deserting you, and often do, but family is constant, ever-loving and foregiving. So construct this box strongly and carefully, to sustain you when others fail. We live on through our children, so a childless person runs the risk of being truly barren

The second box is work. Life would be empty and useless without a mission to try and leave the world just a little bit better than we found it. So this box must also be built upon a firm foundation to be able to fend off life's slings & arrows. Similarly, work's baloon requires constant adjustments and fine tuning within changing times and influences. We only find comfort and contentment when we recognize our personal limitations, and always keep within attainable parameters. To reach for the impossible star is to invite chaos & disaster. There will always be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

No person is an island, so interaction with friends and aquaintances is inescapable. Therefore the third box, and the smallest balloon, is to contain and nurture your friends, colleagues, and those for whom you share comfort, dreams, procreation, and this thing commomly referred to as love. The latter can be all-encompassing but also has the very real potential to change and desert you when you need it most. So love fully, but without compromise of your essential being. To thine own self be true.

- B