Carpe Diem ... Seize the day ...

I want the happy ending ... I want the fairy tale where the Knight in Shining Armour rides off into the sunset with his fair Princess and they live together happily ever after ...

I want it ... but ...
I've seen too much ...
... too much hurt in the world ...
... too much pain in people's lives ...

I've been down too many roads ...
... I've witnessed the ravages of war and the brutality of poverty ...
... I've watched oppression crush people and conflict shatter lives ...

I've stood in the dust of refugee camps ...
I've stood in the sunshine outside the Memorial Yad Vashem ...

I've seen what we are capable of doing to one another ...
I've witnessed the hurt we can inflict upon each other ...

I've wept too many tears to believe in a Fairy Tale ending ...

Some are lucky - they get thier happy fairy tale endings ... they get to be the knight in shining armour riding off into the sunset ... they get their Happily Ever After into Amen endings ...

But they are the fortunate few .. they are the lucky ones ...
For many ... for too many there is no such ending ...

Carpe Diem, they say ... seize the day ...
Maybe, just maybe,
the real Fairy Tale ending comes
when we have the courage to seize the day
and drink deeply from the cup of life ...

Carpe Diem ... Seize the day ...
Maybe when we seize the day we begin at last
to write our very own Fairy Tale ending ...

Carpe Diem ... pehaps ??