[GSBN] geting unstuck

[Bob Theis]

Bruce has brought up yet another meaty issue worth chewing on. 

I don't have a pearl of wisdom to drop, but it reminded me of Anne Herber's venerable essay Honest Hope. 
You can find the entirety on the web - it's not long - but the conclusion is the part I like best: 

Real, slow-growing, long-lasting, hard-standing changes, like trees, never come up and pat you on the head and say, "You did it, kid, you made me possible, and you're terrific and I'm grateful as hell."
Because: 1) you might be dead by the time they're big and tall and you'll surely be different than when first hope caught you; 2) something that substantial you weren't the only variable that varied to make room for it; 3) trees and big changes aren't interested in personalities, even yours.

Honest hope. Plan to get your warm fuzzies someplace else. (What are friends for?) Hope that melts things and makes them new is as huggable as a flame. But warm at the right distance. The right uses of hope and the right distance. Get too close to the campfire, you get blisters, you get wounds. Stare at the flicker too long, you get crazy. Warm your butt and move it. Get to work.



> 
> By no means do I wish to complain.  Every women's suffragette and civil rights worker and peace advocate through history could say the same thing, it's an old story.  But I'm haunted by the thought that we're stuck in a mindset -- the noble-but-starving do-gooder mindset -- that keeps most of us from being much, much more effective at what we do, and communicating the cool stuff we're uncovering.  To lots more people.
> 
> 
> Bruce "Let's get nekkid!" King
> bruce at ecobuildnetwork.org
> (415) 987-7271
> 
> 
> 

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