You are the light and the dark.

My friends, the power is in your hands. 

I am no prophet.  I am not even terribly smart.  I make barely more than minimum wage, and I have a bachelor's degree.  I make no claims to knowledge, other than the familiar matrix of known knowns, known unknowns and unknown unknowns (the fourth, unknown knowns, is probably somewhere between instinct and the subconscious, but I can only speculate).

In reality, you are the person you want to be.  At any given moment, you have the power to choose gratitude or despair.  Greed or altruism.   Self interest or collective interest.  Forgiveness or hatred.  Acceptance or the illusion of control. 

You have this free gift of will.  Use it wisely.

As for me, I am alive, and it is a gift.  Empathy, gratitude, and the ability to practice compassion and kindness when I am feeling spiteful and angry are wonderful, always.  I will be a critic, I will be a skeptic, but at my core, I will always be an optimist.  It is the only way for me to live the life of my choosing.