Buy the Ticket. Take the Ride.

“No sympathy for the devil; keep that in mind. Buy the ticket, take the ride...and if it occasionally gets a little heavier than what you had in mind, well...maybe chalk it off to forced conscious expansion: Tune in, freak out, get beaten.” - Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

It's been almost six years since I tried my hand at publishing a newsletter of creative writing content. It was called the Ruckus Review, and it featured a few writers from my church's college group, including myself, and featured a few works from my brother, who was and still is an avid Hunter Thompson reader.

This was a quote my brother included as an epigraph in one of his articles:

"The last train out of any station will not be full of nice guys." - Dr. Hunter S. Thompson

At the end of the article in which he included this quote, my brother wrote:

"I love this country, and I love my freedom. I'm glad I have the ability to express myself when I am amazed or enraged, and the ability to receive criticism when people believe it needs to be heard. Between all the extremes of human perception, there lies a very simple and obvious truth. It is the responsibility of us all to understand the world around us, and make it the most amazing place imaginable for all of its inhabitants."

I can hardly believe that I published these words nearly six years ago, and am still learning the simple and obvious truths in my own life. They echo through time and circumstance. They boiled to the surface again last night as my wife and I discussed the future. 

We are both interested in understanding the world around us, and doing whatever we can to make it the most amazing place imaginable for all of its inhabitants.

We bought our tickets.

We are taking the ride.