Of the things that now concern you, the great matters of debate and dissent, not one will remain an issue of contention one hundred years from now. For those living then, you will seem as sleepwalkers who were not awake to what was happening in the world around them. You who argue endlessly over things that, while not inconsequential, have no bearing on the future of your people. Your descendants will have left these things behind them, like the person who flees from rising water or a house on fire.
If there is time to take one thing when a moment like that arises, most people know in their hearts what that one thing is—that precious object, heirloom, oracle, true purpose, or belief. What they do not know is that, even now, this is the thing that should guide them. This is the thing they should build their lives around. This is what will save them.
There are so many distractions from the one real thing that lies at the center of every life. You can seem to thrive without knowing what it is, without prizing it, or taking the value or the lesson of it to heart. But, in truth, a life withers without it. The world, too, withers around a life that has no center.
So I tell you now to look about you at the world, at all you see, at all that seems to be of value, and ask yourself, What is the one true thing that, if I hold it like a candle, will guide me through the dark?