Wisdom

Cooking up change

I think there are three ingredients in the delicious cake that is a just world.

  • Foolishness

  • Wisdom

  • Courage

The recipe is simple: We need these in equal measure, but add them in the correct order.

  • Start with foolishness. Dare to dream of what could be, and spend time in that future.

  • Add an equal measure of wisdom. Recognise your resources and context. Recognise competing future visions. And understand what it will cost to attempt to make the dream a reality.

  • Drizzle with a healthy amount of courage. A good plan, well executed is better than a perfect plan, never executed. And it takes courage to acknowledge the foolishness, the cost, and to step out into action.

The secret ingredient in this all, is feedback. Serve the cake, and find out how it tastes. Share it with the world. And then make another.

Go bake a cake.

Foolishness and folly

There’s a fine line between having enough foolishness to hope for and try to bring about a better world, and wasting your energy.

Counter to the Franciscan saying is a prayer from the early 1930s, commonly known as the “Serenity Prayer”. This prayer talks about having:

…the serenity to accept the things we cannot change,
Courage to change the things we can,
And wisdom to know the difference.

Foolishness, serenity, courage, and wisdom. These are the ingredients for changing the world.