The greatest gift to humanity is the ability to choose. Whether you attribute that gift, as I do, to God or to the happenstance of evolution, our freedom to look up instead of down, to smile instead of frown, to reach instead of withdraw - the exercise of those small abilities given to each of us cascades throughout our lives and throughout human history. Each act of choosing leads to others that multiply exponentially as the days of our lives turn to years and the years of our lives turn to generations.

The greatest burden of humanity is the ability to choose. A turn to the left leaves behind a turn to the right. An embrace of one excludes another. An affirmation results in a negation. The loss we incur when we choose leads to boundaries and precincts that divide us from each other and atomize our communities, the inevitable result of every "yes" and every "no."

The gift and the burden both bring us here tonight. Were it not for the glorious opportunities of our ability to choose, there would be neither faith nor politics. Were it not for the sorry consequences of our ability to choose, there would be neither faith nor politics. And since the one act of choosing we cannot commit is to return the gift of free will and thus shrug off the burden of free will, it is right to honor those who choose well, even when they choose differently.

I have assiduously avoided the use of the word "choice." We have placed that word within boundaries and precincts that frustrate our purposes and obscure our intentions. It is just as well - a choice is defined and determined, but choosing is a process that leaves us room to come together in celebration of our commonality. When we choose we engage the gift that is our organic link to each other and we share the burden that is our inevitable encumbrance.

So here is the prayer I offer on behalf of us all tonight as we rush headlong into this season of choosing. May we rejoice in this gift to our human family. May we never despair that we carry its burden alone. And may each of us choose well enough to be worthy of the company of tonight's honorees and of the two men for whom it is named.