I hold firm that there is no absolute truth, that universality is a human-concocted fallacy.And what is ironic, truly laughable, is that the deniers of that claim- those defending the infallible powers of human communication and connection to the end, are those who have proven to me so robustly, and painfully, the error of expecting your most earnest thoughts and feelings to fall on ears both willing to listen and capable of understanding.But if this subject seems too dreary to those never having had to mull on such thoughts for as many hours as I have, I will add that I do not believe this prospect entirely tragic. That it is the hopeless person who chances the slightest glance into a more complex understanding of the world and sees no hope, not those who pose that there may be no hope that is not naturally constructed, but rather willfully commanded into existence by the mind of man. The latter, I believe, to speak better of humanity than the former, anyway. Does acknowledging the manufactured nature of value diminish the subject? Lessen that constructed value? No, whenever was creation anything but an act of hope? And if that hope is absurd, if it flies in the face of all that is logical and sensical and worldly, does it not strengthen that hope? Does it not steel it into an immovable force, one that we may anchor ourselves to forever without telling a single lie? Hope is not a practice of the weak; it is fortitude that does not rely on reason. And placing value on that which is invaluable to the universe is an act of great resolve and understanding. We live as we dream- alone.The human consciousness cannot be penetrated, cannot be pierced by the nearness of another- communication often fails and experience cannot be shared.However, we are all together in our alone-ness, united by our division and a single-minded determination to end that division.To pursue a goal and to never reach it is enough, has always been enough for the human imagination. And why place peaks before us, that once we meet we must then only travel declivities all our lives? We should always try to overcome ourselves for ourselves and others, and that task is enough- it is infallible. It is a boulder that cannot fall down again.To humbly embrace our humanity, the creative urge to pursue- that in itself is an expression of hope.