"Imagine not knowing when you would ever be released in a prison that treats prisoners as animals. The chances of surviving were 1 in 28, so the odds were really low."

I'm not exactly sure what the ratio of suicide is in America, but I know it has been climbing. I believe part of this mystery is wrapped up in the fact that many of us younger Americans feel precisely this way - imprisoned to live as animals in a broken society. In my heart, I don't believe we are all so disconnected from one another that we can't see the forest through the trees. But I do feel we are at the apogee of technology, and still trying to figure out how we can come back from the edge of nonsense.

Chances of living a full life - into old age - is lower now than it's ever been. It's 2022 and we still have not adopted a national #LivingWage or #HealthCare policy, let alone resolved our differences about what #PersonalFreedom means. Many young people, coming of age in this age of technology, are realizing that they are being born to a world that is very 'out of touch' in a variety of ways - with reality. The internet has made sharing our research and the greatest ideas from our greatest minds available to all of us. It's mind numbingly unbelievable to think we've literally no reason to be waging bloody wars of attrition against one another or playing ridiculous economic games with climate change. The behavior of many of our world 'leaders' has been deplorable. It's obvious to most of us that life has no real meaning for these individuals that just don't get it.

I'm a younger person, as are you, that has had the realization that we are all - essentially - captives of planet earth. I think the sooner we all can come to consensus about this fact, the better. We've had more than half a century to deny this truth, Victor Frankl's truth. How long do you think it will take for us, as a species, to undo all the denying? ... there are more of us than not that believe in Frankl's meaning of the word 'meaning'. It would (and should) only truly be a very small segment of the world's population, living in secluded exile from the rest of the planet, that would afford themselves - and the rest of us - the life of a lie, or complete respite from the madness. Because we are all going to drive our selves crazy if we do not adopt this shared reality we've all been born to - with a much better attitude about how to take agency in solving our shared problems. Because we've essentially run out of time - our lives and the lives of our children depend upon it.

We must find solidarity in this #NewParadigm the #Pandemic has offered each of us. I agree, if we can all read Frankl and see that we can circumscribe our own lives with our understanding of the power of our connectedness, while holding faith in the possible, we will all be forever freed.