dear nephews

Dear nephews,
As you walk through life, everywhere you turn someone or something will always be there to tell you what you should FEEL, what you should THINK, and what you should WANT. Most of the time, these messages come without words. We transfer our attitudes about everything around us to those we are with, without opening our mouths. You've probably not had many talks about elevators, yet you know something about the elevator-attitude of everyone you've ever shared one with. You have been absorbing values from the people and images around you since the day you were born. Those values are now "you".
Here is some of what you've absorbed.
You should go to college to get a job to work at least eight hours a day five days a week to get as much money as you can until you're sixty-five, then you get a few years off before you die.
This is NONSENSE.
If you convince the most beautiful women you ever meet that they should have sex and babies with you and no one else, you will win the game of life.
This is NONSENSE.
The first thing that people will always want to know about you is whether you're in a romance.
This is NONSENSE.
Some people think Star Wars is better than Star Trek.
This is NONSENSE.
Now, would you like me to tell you what isn't nonsense?
I can't.
The only person who can tell you what isn't nonsense is you. The hard part is finding "you". Your voice, your feelings, have been buried by what your family and friends have been pouring into your head since you were a baby. Most of what your family and friends know, they learned from a TV commercial.
It takes some people five years to find their own voice. It takes others fifty. Most people never find it, because most people never look for it.
You've probably noticed the idiots in this world. They're hard to miss. What you may not have noticed is that the people who seem like they're not idiots...are also idiots. Every single one. Especially me.
And that's not nonsense.

love,
Uncle Buddy