I am involved in a freedom ride protesting the loss of the minority rights belonging to the few remaining earthbound stars. All we demanded was our right to twinkle.

We are driven by five genetic needs: survival love and belonging power freedom and fun.

Yet it ought to be obvious that good music generally occupies a higher plane that mere politics. Great writers can express moods through melody and capture experiences we share most powerfully - love lust longing joy rage fear triumph yearning and confusion.

Positive feelings come from being honest about yourself and accepting your personality and physical characteristics warts and all and from belonging to a family that accepts you without question.

I realized that my truest passion was for helping people change through faith in a higher power. That meant for me belonging to the church. Using my abilities to bring Christian doctrine to a postmodern world.

In thinking about religion and society in the 21st century we should broaden the conversation about faith from doctrinal debates to the larger question of how it might inspire us to strengthen the bonds of belonging that redeem us from our solitude helping us to construct together a gracious and generous social order.

I'd like to see much more understanding of emotional issues around hurt abandonment disappointment longing failure and shame where they stem from and how they drive people and policies brought into public discourse.

People want the right to die at a time of their own choosing. Too many families have watched helplessly as a relative dies slowly longing for death.

Death is the great hope of all life the desire to expend itself to be used and consumed by its own longing for itself.

I longed to arrest all beauty that came before me and at length the longing has been satisfied.