We certainly live in a world which is and has been pretty cruel and brutal; and yet there are so many great and wonderful things about it, too. At best, life can be real confusing.

     You've got your ups and downs; hairpin turns, loop the loops and some pretty odd twists. Even the future looks like a grim place. Just watch the news.

     Things like faith, luck, chance and belief have become, in my view, all that one has left to rely on. Not that these are bad at all, but try going to the bank with a lottery ticket as collateral. Nonetheless, that was my assessment of the world at large. Not a pretty picture all in all.

     But that is not the way I found it in Scientology.

     I discovered with and in Scientology, regardless of what strife or hardship I may be dealt, experience or even observe in the business of living, an absolute, rock solid, bottom line, unshakable personal reality of the truth of my own and others' spirituality. There is just no debate, or speculation for me. I don't need more proof. I don't just believe it or even hope it, I just know it. I am satisfied (and I can't think of any more declarative sentences without getting absurdly redundant).

     Now I cannot honestly think of anything that could possibly make that anything less than cause for tremendous celebration, at the very least. Just that awareness alone puts an awful lot of 'stuff' in perspective. Just about everything I can think of.