As somebody on the fringe for a long time, and especially as somebody that's been enjoying the creativity of FA for a few months now, I want to say that despite all the penchant for self-loathing and melodrama and all the other silly crap:

Thank you, furry community. Thank you for: being sane. This isn't even an effort to damn the rest of humanity by faint praise. I really mean it.

Long have I been arguing for the importance of imagination, in all sorts of unlikely places-- famously once for example, in defense of religion (I'm an atheist) on the Yiffstar forums.

And furthermore, my alliegance has always been to everyone who was indifferent to the need to prove anything about one's own normalcy, ability to fit in, make others comfortable, diminish themselves without really letting go of anything or making room for anything good, promote themselves without ever becoming themselves, in deference to either cliche or persuit of empty uniqueness.

Let me put it this way: furry isn't po-mo, and it's not empty classicism, so it's an automatic win. Everything here, even the clumsiest and most humilitating (and plenty of my stuff is that), is superb. Even all the silly boners. And certainly all the subtleties-- I'm an utter philistine, and yet, I have so many experiences with stuff on FA that're satisfying and layered, I'd rather have the fandom than TV. (Actually, I just don't like TV).

Here's to the wild animals, and the tame, everywhere, that constitute our improbable menagerie, geniuses every one. I've tried to praise you-all elsewhere in poetry, but it wasn't very good, and I'm pretty tired now, and mostly babbling.