An Explaination

I was reading the book ‘Bono on Bono’ a while ago. It’s kind of an auto-biography/interview book. There was a story in the book that really stood out to me and thus helped me decide what to call my blog. Here’s the story:

So I went along to introduce one of the great photographers of the age and ended up in this room full of ‘Bonos’ standing and looking at me over twenty years. And I saw this picture. I must have been twenty-two or something, getting into a helicopter for a video. I think it was "New Year’s Day." I just saw this face, and it was my first face. the eyes were so clear, and so fearless, and I looked at it. A journalist walked up beside me and said: "What would you say to that person now? You’ve got one thing you can say to him. What is it?" I was going to be funny, but then i thought I shouldn’t. I told him: "I would tell my younger self: You’re right. Don’t second guess yourself’ " I felt it so strongly. I wish I knew then how right I was. I wasn’t wrong. You’re supposed to go: "Oh, I was foolish then. I’ve grown up , and I laugh." I do laugh at some of the music, some of the statements I’ve made. Some of the image problems do leave me a little embarrasses, a little red-faced. But there’s strength to that naivete. I wasn’t wrong about the world. The world is more malleable than you think. We can bend it into a better shape. Ask big questions, demand big answers.

I know that this will sound weird, but when I read this I felt God clearly say to me, "At the end of your life are you going to give up on the ideals you have right now? Are you going to allow other people’s cynicism and addiction to living in reality to make you believe that I can’t change reality? It’s okay that you are an idealist! I am too! Don’t give up and keep hoping for a change that I can bring about." I hope that when I am double the age I am now that I can say I didn’t give up and kept fighting for the ideals that I know I share with God. So that’s the story…and now my blog is called the Urban Idealist. Welcome…