13 years of brain pickings by Maria Popova

13 Life Lessons - a healing thought for those of us who were born idealists who have been criticized, lambasted and dismissed.  This is a very helpful post. Thank you to Daily Good for posting it. My favourite lesson is this: 

"Don’t be afraid to be an idealist. There is much to be said for our responsibility as creators and consumers of that constant dynamic interaction we call culture — which side of the fault line between catering and creating are we to stand on? The commercial enterprise is conditioning us to believe that the road to success is paved with catering to existing demands — give the people cat GIFs, the narrative goes, because cat GIFs are what the people want. But E.B. White, one of our last great idealists, was eternally right when he asserted half a century ago that the role of the writer is “to lift people up, not lower them down” — a role each of us is called to with increasing urgency, whatever cog we may be in the machinery of society."

Thank you Maria Popova.

13 years of brain pickings by Maria Popova