Idealism versus practicality

 Though idealism feeds the soul practicality actually keeps you physically alive.

So, though idealism might give you hope, practicality will actually keep you physically alive.

This is the lesson of one's 20s and some people never learn this lesson and so they don't survive mentally or physically depending upon the person.

In past centuries this was a life or death lesson more but now it's something different. In a way you can survive much longer on idealism than you used to be able to simply because of general abundance in countries especially like the U.S., Canada and Europe.

But, eventually, we all die one way or the other if we are not practical enough in our choices.

One might argue practicality can kill your soul. This is true.

But, without practicality your body often is dead too.

So, a good life is weaving the right amount of idealism with practicality so you can be reasonably happy during your life so you don't just want to kill yourself every single day even though one's 20s are difficult to survive for most people.

And if your mistakes are too serious that you make in your 20s then you often are so messed up by your 30s that your life basically is over anyway for all intents and purposes.

I was lucky in many ways to suffer enough in my childhood (even though I had good parents) that my 20s weren't so bad that I died from one cause or another. So, by the time I was in my 30s I was still capable of creating a good life for myself and my children.