Part II — Talk

Talk at the opening of the United States National Senior Olympics¹³

O Senior Olympics, I bow to the indomitable courage of your body and I bow to the unhorizoned dream of your soul. You are the perfect embodiment of yesterday's blossoming inspiration, today's mounting aspiration and tomorrow's fulfilling satisfaction.

O Senior Olympians, your hearts' wisdom-light is telling the entire world that you belong to Time eternal, running along Eternity's Road, challenging the giant pride of self-doubt on the battlefield of life. You are the supreme hero-athletes who look forward, upward and inward. Forward you look to declare you can. Upward you look to declare you will. Inward you look to declare you are, eternally are. You can conquer the limitations of the body. You will transform the teeming imperfections of the body into perfection. You are the Olympian pilgrims who smilingly and proudly shake hands with impossibility. Already you are in the galaxy of immortals. You are creating a oneness-world-home with the physical fitness of your body-fort and with the universal fulness of your heart-victory.

O Senior Olympics, O Senior Olympians, O self-giving sponsors and organisers of this unprecedented Senior Olympics, to you I bow, to you I bow. With my mind's prayerful admiration and with my heart's soulful gratitude, to you I bow.