« Calling for Total RE-MAX! | Main | Boom & Bust Economies »
July 08, 2005
Seneca, Lincoln, the Cheshire Cat & Democracy~The Art of Vision
The Daily Bailout posts a guest columnist today, Martha White on Democracy and the Art of Vision. Martha White is an author, interior designer, professional public speaker, futurist, and a consultant to organizations in the domains of learning, creativity, and change. Here's an excerpt from her column:
What could the Roman philosopher Seneca, American president Abraham Lincoln, and the Cheshire Cat from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland possibly have in common, and how could that commonality relate to the subject of democracy?
The answer is: They all articulate the significance of vision.
Seneca understood that “our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind.”
Abraham Lincoln believed: “If we could know where we are and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do and know how to do it."
Lost in Wonderland, Alice asked the Cheshire Cat: “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.
"I don’t much care where,” said Alice.
Said the Cat: “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go."
In other words, if you don't know where you are going, and why you want to get there, any road will do.
How have we, as a species, done such damage to our global environment and to ourselves and other human beings within a relatively short period of time? How did we come to find ourselves in such dire straits in our short history as a nation?
Proverbs 29:18 states the answer succinctly. “Without vision the people perish."
CLICK TO READ ON & LEARN HOW TO DEVELOP VISION
Posted by wjbailes at July 8, 2005 03:48 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://chattablogs.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/23022
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Seneca, Lincoln, the Cheshire Cat & Democracy~The Art of Vision: