Because I choose to be.

I may reside in hell. But I don't live in hell. Because I have learned how to isolate myself. To find or build a cocoon. That shelters me from hell. And I do it by falling in love. With someone. And with life. That allows me to find Paradise. Even in the confines of a world that serves as hell. Hell is occurring all around me. Look at the wars. The devastation. The inequality. The many, many uncontrolled tragic events. Yet I am able to find happiness. Merely because I am in love. Genuinely in love. And able to go to Sardinia. To live with my true love. To walk the beaches on the Mediterranean Sea. To forget that I am an American. Instead, I am the creation of the god of love. A citizen of the cosmos. Because I choose to be. --Jim Broede