CharlieDean

A friend told me not-so-long-ago, that I’m idealistic.  I don’t think it was an insult, at least I didn’t take it as such.  But I’ve been thinking about it.  He’s right.

It’s funny because I generally think I’m a little bit of a glass-half-empty kind of guy.  But, I think that’s just a coping mechanism, so I don’t get too disappointed, because at my core I’m super-idealistic.  To add to that, I’m also romantic – not necessarily in the “buy my wife roses all the time,” kind of way, but in the “isn’t there a beauty in parenting/marriage/friendship/creation” kind of way.

My idealism insists that there’s a deeper/better/more “carpe-diem” way of living than most people live.  My idealism tells me that most people miss so much of life because they just don’t notice – the taste of their food, the smell of red wine, the beauty all around, the nuance of a song, the cleansing of a deep conversation where one’s soul is laid bare before a trusting friend.  My idealism hopes that church is more than just a social gathering or an individualistic, self-serving panacea to dealing with life’s problems, and that just maybe, the church can change the world.

I think there’s value in naming things.  This is why in an AA meeting one introduces herself as “I’m ______ , and I’m an alcoholic.”  So, I’m owning it, “Hi, I’m Charlie, and I’m a bit of an idealist.”

(That feels good.)  (And, I doubt that in the long conversation we had that night, my friend even remembers saying that I was idealistic, but I’m glad he did.)

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