Footing......................................

Two perceptions cast their shadows over my existence.  One consists in my realization that the world is inexplicably mysterious and full of suffering;  the other in the fact that I have been born into a period of spiritual decadence in mankind.  I have become familiar with and ready to deal with each, through the thinking which has led me to the ethical and affirmative position of Reverence for Life.  In that principle my life has found firm footing and a clear path to follow.

-Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965), as excerpted from Out of My Life and Thought:  An Autobiography