The failings don't eliminate the possibilities

April 10, 2006
The following was written in a column by a friend, Elizabeth Sawin, who, I have often believed, speaks with the voice of the late Donella Meadows

I know the examples of our failings surround us. Our mistakes and missteps are so many and so clear that they don’t need mentioning. But the failings merely coexist with the possibilities, just as a two year old’s fib or a fifteen-year old’s recklessness co-exists with the possibility of the woman she could become. Factory farms don’t diminish the possibility displayed in a lush diverse, organic farm. The existence of bigots and haters doesn’t erase the example of lives lived in peace for the common good. The failings don’t eliminate the possibilities. Only ignoring the possibilities or deciding they are beyond our reach can do that.