Thanks, Wretchard.

I’ve been reading your blog every day for a couple of years now, I guess. Its obvious that you’ve had a lot of time to think over the course of your life, and have experienced more in that life than most of us ever will, or would want to.

I’ve been grateful for you ability to put down in writing the lessons you’ve learned and the clarity you have with philosophy, truth, and life. I’ve been envious, too, wishing that I were as eloquent as you; able to communicate complex but fundamental truths with brevity, insight, and most of all, completeness.

However, I think the things I enjoy reading most on the Belmont Club are these stories from your past. To me, they are stories from another world, another era, that I have no experience with. I haven’t seem them on TV or in movies. I haven’t read about them in a book. I haven’t even glimpsed them in my dreams and imagination. You bring them to life so effortlessly (at least it seems that way) and with it, you inspire in me that most special and powerful of things, hope.

That you have come from a world that I was completely ignorant of, and have survived, thrived, and contributed so much thought and intelligence to me in my life astounds me. No matter the state of the world, global affairs, politics, or what-have-you, it is possible for the very best in this world to emerge from the very worst. That no matter how dark times get, a dawn is always waiting just over the horizon.

Obama doesn’t have anything on you, ol’ boy. Hope. God bless, and keep it up. Cheers to the Belmont Club.