 Z is for zeitgeist, the spirit and mood of a particular period of history as defined by the ideas or beliefs of the time. Y is for yesterday, for in order to understand the mood of the time we must pause, look back upon the road we have trodden, pray that we do not become pillars of salt. X is how we sign our names now, none of us wants to admit that we had anything to do with how we got here. For the world that we were gifted grows weary of the waste we have laid upon her. When did we forsake the wisdom of living within her means for the worship of whatever is cheap and easy? We have been living in a vicious vacuum as if we were vampires tapping into our own veins and we are in desperate need of a U-turn. For the times they are a-changing at an exponential rate. We speak of S for sacrifices if by simplifying our lives we have so much to lose, yet we fail to R for realize just how much we have to lose. It's not a question of qualification, we put a man upon the moon, yet we are but blades of grass hanging out over a precipice, growing ever closer to the edge, oblivious that the soil in which we have trusted our roots grows ever thinner by the year. N is for my Nana, who never wasted a single thing in her life. MLK for the glass milk bottles we used to put out at the gate. J is for jars of homemade jam. I is for the irony that these days quarrying the stone, grinding the sand, melting the glass, melting the jar, cooking the jam, adding flavoring 124 and preservative 262, boxing, packing, wrapping, shipping containers across the sea, only to unpack, unbox and stock, restock, supermarket shelves. Well that seemed like a simpler option than just making a batch of jam. Sometimes my inner cynic says that H is for hopeless, we are already too late to the table. But my inner optimist is always looking for ways that she can help. So the only compromise I can find is that H is for the humility and G is for the grace it takes to admit that we've been wrong. So F is not for failure but for forgiveness. Kindness starts from within. We must be kind to ourselves. Litigation's promise is bittersweet and all the best futures are carved upon a clean slate. So let's E for evaluate, eliminate the dogma we have built. Let's stage a departure from this slate guys, from this culture of convenience, this cancer of consumption. We don't have another option C, there is no planet B and this time round we're going to need straight A's. Thank you.