"Artists make things and play characters"

 I found this an interesting perspective from Britney Spears Book. I have been very amazed at how helpful her perspective on things might be especially for younger people just starting out in life.

Begin partial Quote from: "The Woman in me" by Britney Spears. page 5:

"Artists make things and play characters because they want to escape into faraway worlds, and escape was exactly what I needed. I wanted to live inside my dreams, my wonderful fictitious world, and never think about reality if I could help it."

This resonated with me a lot having once been a child and teenager myself. 

Luckily, I moved on from this way of thinking because my father and grandfather were very pragmatic people. Their pragmatism often scared me as a child and young adult. However, in my 20s especially I realized that their pragmatism was the difference often between life and death and success and failure in whatever you were trying to do in life.

So, living in a fantasy might help some artists but if you stay like that throughout your life it also might contribute to your early death as well.

I used to believe in the adage "Don't trust anyone over 30" which was a rallying cry for people under 30 years old especially in the 1960s and 1970s.

However, then it was 1977 and I suddenly realized now that I was 29 years old: "Was I now supposed to stop trusting myself because I would be 30 years old soon?"

This kind of thinking "at least at that point" changed to a much more pragmatic view of life and away from the idealism of youth. After all, I had been a father and married since I was 26 even though I was presently 29 at this point.

Unless you are pragmatic enough neither you or your children are going to survive past 30 years of age.

So, Dreams and idealism are okay but you have to know when to let go of all this if you want you as well as your children to survive into the future in one piece.