No Retreat; No Surrender

Congratulations to the man who has been persecuted by the powerful, for he has found the truth.

Congratulations to the man who has found the deepest love and then lost it, for he has learned that nothing is permanent.

Congratulations to the man who stays up at night wondering about the meaning of life, for he has achieved material comfort.

Congratulations to the man who can’t get along with those in his generation, for he is able to think for himself.

Congratulations to the man who has held a dying person in his arms, for now he can live without delusion.

Congratulations to the man who got beat up in a fistfight, for he knows he is not made of glass.

Congratulations to the man who has thought of killing someone, for he is connected to his primal nature.

Congratulations to the man who was stabbed in the back by a friend, for he has learned to only count on himself.

Congratulations to the man who feels utterly alone in the world, for he is about to hear a knock on his door.

Congratulations to the man who has been publicly humiliated, for he can finally take off the actor’s mask.

Congratulations to the man who hates the sight of a girl he just slept with, for he knows what love is not.

Congratulations to the man who traveled too far down the wrong road, for he is steps away from the righteous path.

Congratulations to the man who wishes he could live in another era, for he has enough hope to see tomorrow.

Congratulations to the man who has gone from rich to poor, for he has learned the physical world is not his to own.

And congratulations to the man who is standing on the hangman’s gallows, for it won’t be much longer for his pain to end.