September 11, 2002 | 3:31 PM

Sometimes life seems inconceivable without the stupid, petty, meaningless ego wars and shit flinging associated with post-modern existence.

But I wanna say that I really and truly love you�those of you I know personally. And those of you I don�t, I love your stories. Thank you so much for honoring me with them.

And as dark and cynical as I feel some days, I still echo Anne Frank�s sentiment�one she experienced in the midst of great inhumanity and terrorism.

In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can't build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery and death.

At the end of the day, all that matters is the love you feel for others, the lessons�both painful and pleasurable you have taught and learned, and a fierce devotion to your own ideals and to the best of mankind.

I refuse. I absolutely refuse to believe that we cannot rise above-- if we choose to do so-- hatred, misunderstandings, violence, and cowardice. Both globally and personally, this is the truest destiny of humankind.

It is well within our potential to do it. And we must. Or we may as well just drop the bomb on ourselves right now and end it all.

If things about the world suck, then we must change them. If we are unhappy with how we treat others or how others treat us or how we treat ourselves, we must honor those feelings and do something about them. If we take great care with each moment of our lives and each relationship we have and treat each other with honesty and respect�if everyone did that, then the world would be forever in bloom. And nothing would be impossible.

I mean it. I think all of that can happen. We just have to want it badly enough. We have to sacrifice our apathy and ennui and wariness and defence mechanisms. There just isn�t any room for complacency. Things are dire and I have a strong sense of this society being at a pivotal crossroads. It is desperate, and right now I think it's either sink or swim-- sink into the muck of personal and global defeat, into the death of dreams and hopelessness. Or swim towards something better. And it we're swimming against the current, if the undertow pulls us down-- damn't, at least we tried.

Today although I have an enormous sadness in my heart, I am choosing to focus on being present in my life and in the world. And telling the people I love that I love them�the way many many people on board certain airplanes and in certain buildings didn�t have the chance to do a year ago.

Because when we�re all ghosts and we stare from behind the veil at this beautiful, sick, sad, lovely, amazing world of ours, we are going to regret not at least trying to make it a better place and fully appreciating the incredible sacred gifts it has to offer.

I am going to do this as much as I can all day today and every day after and many of you will be hearing from me individually. But I�m gonna say the big collective right now.

I love you.

I forgive you for any hurts you may have caused me.

I hope you forgive any hurts I�ve caused you.

I value your lives and I value mine.

I treasure your honesty and your friendship and your courage and I hope you treasure mine.

I see the best in you and in myself.

I think we can all come together and give the world and each other everything we�ve got.