Utopia – Make It Your Problem

“Optimism is the most important human trait, because it allows us to evolve our ideas, to improve our situation, and to hope for a better tomorrow.” ~ Seth Godin

I am not an eternal optimist but I am a dreamer. Not rose colored glasses dreaming but taking the circumstances and whistling them through my imagination.
Idealism sees the best something can be and wishes and acts it to be so. When I whistle and wish and look to a preferred future I am filled with hope. Hope is a choice that we get to make every day and the more we choose it the more we feel.
I don’t subscribe to a Utopian agenda because I believe that we live in a time and place that can be good, better, best but if we get Pollyana the menu of change becomes sappy and sugary and hard to swallow.

Optimists, enthusiasts, fanatics, admirers can be a ray of sunshine in a group or community but they need a tinge of realism so that they aren’t seen as naive empty headed zealots.

Why is the best of us and the worst of us separated by such a thin line? Have we always seen the easy going, buoyant, stargazer with suspicion if the enthusiasm was too over the top? Bryan Welch wrote “But history also gives us plenty of reason for optimism. On the humble foundation of skin clothing and bone jewelry we have built a wondrous technological superstructure to support ongoing innovation.” Maybe we only suspect the optimist when the level of uncertainty gets too high or the circumstances to dire. I imagine the guy who said ” It will all be great tomorrow” as meteors were raining down or an ice age was upon us would have been pretty hard to take.

Optimism is a motivator and a coping skill. For me it can be both at the same time. Leading me forward to good, better, best and protecting me from bad, worse, tragic.
I get to choose to be optimistic every morning and with every turn of my day. You get to accept my zeal every morning and at each turn. The acceptance has to do with me and our relationship and you and your disposition. Given that we both have a choice, I have decided that I am going to lean to hoping for the best and expecting the best. You can make your own decision.

Make Today Hopeful,
B

Imagine a country filled with possibilities where most of your needs can be met and lots of your desires achieved. A place where honesty, integrity, persistence and some initiative are rewarded by providence and fellow citizens. In this place government serves the people but doesn’t smother them. Our elected officials are expected to represent the diverse and vocal electorate with decisions and actions that are thoughtful and not ideological. Decisions that don’t please everyone and never always please the same people are the order of the day.

Work is valued and those who perform it are honored whether a doctor or a caretaker. The contribution they make is recognized and compensated in such a way as to allow dignity. Small businesses thrive and large corporations balance profit against community.

Intelligence is respected. Individualism is encouraged. Inspiration is abundant. Wisdom of elders is acknowledge and lessons are learned. Playfulness and curiousity isn’t just the prevue of youth and everyone seeks lifelong learning across a wide menu of opportunities.

Family, however that is defined, is the main source of support and encouragement. Friendships are based in respect rather than reciprocity yet an unspoken quid pro quo is dutifully, intuitively and joyfully observed.

Stewardship of all resources; physical, financial and human are tested but not abused, shared but not demanded, conserved and preserved rather than spent in a short term quest for more – right now.

I live in a place (and likely so do you) where some of this vision is already true; a place where most of the ideals were once held across society. But also a place where many of these ideas are fading. We are all complicate in the erosion of a collective preferred future, either by our actions or inactions. What steps can we take ourselves, with our family and in groups of likeminded compatriots to reverse engineer the future. If we begin with a version of this ‘Utopia’ as the goal and work backwards to the current state maybe a plan will reveal itself. More likely we just need to start acting like the future is already here and when enough of us begin the destiny will manifest itself.

Make Today Remarkable by taking a first step,

Tag: Utopia

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