True North - April 19th

Some of us, observing that ideals are

rarely achieved, proceed to the error of

considering them worthless. Such an

error is greatly harmful. True North

cannot be reached either, since it is an

abstraction, but it is of enormous im-

portance, as all the world's travelers

can attest.

-- Steve Allen

How many of us, seeing others who failed to live fully by their ideals, cried "Hypocrite!" Perhaps we even pointed to others' shortcomings to excuse our own. Now, in this program, we may be tempted to swing like a pendulum to the other extreme. We may hold to our values and principles so tightly that we are perfectionistic.

The idea that True North cannot ever be reached is very useful. If we don't achieve True North, even though we establish it as our standard, we will generally be heading in the right direction. Although we never perfectly achieve our ideals, they remain our standards today for orienting our lives.

I do accept standards for my life. I will not beat on myself for my imperfections.