Practicality

Yes, I am idealistic, but I try to be practical as well. There's no use in spinning out visions, no matter how wonderful they are, if they won't work. We need practicality as well as vision; we need to focus on what is possible as well as all the wonderful things we can think of. While we can change reality, reality is where we need to start and reality is always part of what we have to deal with. We need to take practical steps if we are going to change things and what we work toward needs to be practical if it's going to happen. In essence what we are working toward is combining the idealistic and the practical. Gandhi referred to himself as a "practical idealist" and his philosophy as "practical idealism". (Unfortunately, this is also a phrase that has been misused by the Bush administration, especially Condoleezza Rice in describing her version of diplomacy. All the wonderful terms we might come up with, can and will be used by those who intend very different things.)

Practicality means that we ground our work in the possible. We can extend what is possible--often far beyond what the cynical will tell us is possible--but we need to anchor our dreams in the soil of this real earth and build our new world on firm foundations.


Quote of the day: "Goals are not dreamy, pie-in-the-sky ideals. They have every day practical applications and they should be practical." - Les Brown
Word (or phrase) of the day: Commodification
Hero(es) of the day: Janie Porter Barrett