Something I appreciate about the thinking of Seth Godin is that he finds a way to blend the possible and the practical.  And he crafts some great one-liners in the process.  A recent post of his, “On Building a Cathedral,” is a great example of this.

He begins with a simple premise:

If you’re in need of a gathering place, a dry, functional, centrally located facility for your folks to meet, a cathedral is probably way more than you need. It’s far more expensive to build and maintain and not optimal in delivering what’s required.

But what if this building needs to fill other functions as well?

And then he gives a short list of “perhaps…” statements to get you thinking.

He closes by turning things around using one of his most common approaches: talking about the tendency of organizations to “race to the bottom” in order to succeed.  And then he says this:

The thing we’re working on is a rare chance to contribute something far more than the least we could get away with.

Such a great quality: to call you out and to inspire you at the same time.  How great it would be if we all could contribute “more than the least we could get away with.”

(image of Saint Paul’s from businessinsider.com)