This is how things go ...

(orig. Graphite drawings by Sam Durant, 2004 -- "Routine Action" & "Boys throwing rocks at British forces, Belfast, 1976")

STEP 1: A person goes to the gym, runs on a treadmill, says' “This is great!”

“You know what would make it better?” they say, “A television!”

STEP 2: A person goes to the gym and watches television on the treadmill.

You know what would make this better?” they think to themselves quietly, “A couch.”

STEP 3: A person considers going to the gym. Instead, saves some travel-time

and stays home, watching the show they would have watched on the treadmill.

*

STEP 1: A visionary has a moment of clarity, sees the resolution—“If I can gather a small group, mortally devoted to to ending violence, we could create a healing sanctuary in this violent world.”

STEP 2: That visionary seeds and fosters a community based on empathy and sustainability.

It attracts many who are tired of the larger society's callousness and waste. Together, these people prove to the world that school can be enjoyable and pragmatic, work can be rewarding and creative, life can be simple and purposeful, love can be unqualified and free.

STEP 3: The national economy recovers a bit, and there is a 10-year period where no major wars break out. Elders in the community tell stories of how things were. But they grow old.

Their children go to the movies and fall in love, and listen to club music, and wonder why their co-workers hated school so much, and worry that their corporate employers don't care about them as people, and vote for a “small government / deregulation / privatize healthcare” politician, who is well-tailored around his obesity and funds attack ads and cheats on his wife, because he promises to lower taxes.

*

STEP 1: I dreamed up this great idea for a movie. I wrote out the plot with great enthusiasm;

I built out the scenes with determination; I filmed half those scenes; I edited two of them.

STEP 2: “Maybe this movie wasn't such a great idea,” I began to ponder. But!

I have a lovely idea for a child's book... and a catchy song worth recording... and a PhD dissertation...

STEP 3: I write a blog post about the 'progress' of humans, questioning that progress's ultimate value;

even its ultimate morality. “Now I don't feels so bad about my half-done projects,” I say to myself.