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So, my fatherly message is that there are no divine rules telling us how to behave -- we must build our own personal set of rules. I can't accept the Ayatollah Khomeini's rules, or Jimmy Swaggart's, or Master Moon's. I contrived my own, as best I could.
Even though there's no ultimate meaning, and we're heading for the grave, we should keep trying to improve life -- to suppress violence and disease and hunger, to give fair and equal rights to everyone, and to make a safe world for our kids. When I see the faces of children, including my grandkids and great-grandkids, it gives me hope. Their eager innocence says that life will rush on, teeming with vitality, always with a chance for goodness to hold the dark side in check.
We must make the most of the baffling existence that has been handed to us. Lucy Stone was a crusader who struggled for women's rights. As she lay dying, her last words were: "Make the world better." That's as good a motto as you'll find.
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