Unfinished Business

It's often the case that after people face a crisis and come through relatively victorious (or at least ahead of their low expectations) they then stop trying so hard. Paul Krugman mentions this today, about how stimulus measures provide a modicum of hope and some Indian Summer tidings and already people are prepared to say, "Stop now, we're in the black!"

But the experience of the world, in every dimension, in every aspect, in both the material and spiritual realm, is that nothing is over until it's over. We fight the good fight in order to complete the race, not instead of completing the race. And we keep striving. If you burn all your resources to reach what is almost the peak of the world, and then fall away slowly, it is a terrible thing.

I look at the figures and I see how the College of Wyverns has reached a peak simply by numbers and effort, but with a discernible lack of cleverness, and I realise that there are limits to how much a small band of tireless workers can do to overhaul a huge machine that no longer has a unified mission. It can yet be saved; but the brains are falling to pieces, and the work has not been done that will keep it alive.

Time for another envisioning exercise, I suppose. We all pray it will work out.