

Carpenter of words, builder of paragraphs, architect of dreams.
To those of you actively building a world that is more peaceful and equitable, I say thank you. To those of you still standing by the sidelines, unsure, I say this: We need you. Life is not a spectator sport. We are all participants, and now more than ever we need every hand on deck to right this ship and chart a better course. Choose one thing you love about life on this planet, and make that your thing.
We were fewer than 500 miles from the North Pole. There was no snow. It was, most days, 60 degrees Fahrenheit. There was no ice, so polar bears roamed the land, so hungry that they just went from nest to nest eating the eggs of birds that had traveled thousands of miles to lay their eggs and raise their chicks. I watched as one bear, in a couple of hours, destroyed an entire generation of eggs. Glaucous gulls, kitty wakes, eider ducks, king eider ducks. It was a devastating scene.
My grandfather had many lessons. He told me something that I later taught my daughter. He said, “You are billions of years in the making, you are born of this time for this time. You have survived slavery, genocide and disease. You carry the wisdom of your ancestors with you, yet there is no one like you.”