Please don’t think that this anniversary is a result,
that you, at last, are now classed as an adult!
Your life ahead can evolve in so many ways
and what, I wonder, will be the next phase?
An explorer perhaps, not only of peoples and lands, but also ideas;
showing a readiness to take risks, and conquer your innermost fears.
Man’s search for understanding, for divining the nature of our universe,
becomes seduced too often by the pursuit of power, mankind’s curse.
So, distil your own magic potion of passion and reason
And use that alchemy to formulate your vision.
To Jason, on the occasion of his 18th birthday.