An ideal is a promise a lifeform makes to itself about what it will be, no matter what happens around it. It is easy to keep in fair weather. It is only tested in the storm. And the storm always comes!
Long ago, at the far edge of a small Dimension, there lived a Lifeform who kept a lamp. It stood on a black cliff above an endless dark sea, and every night the Lifeform climbed the cliff and lit the lamp so that anything lost in the dark could find its way to shore. It had made itself one promise when it was young: the light would burn for everyone who needed it, whoever they were.
For a long time, that was easy.
Then war came to the Dimension.
The first army came up the cliff and said, "Turn your lamp away from the sea. Our enemies sail at night. Let them drown."
The Lifeform said, "The light burns for everyone," and the army burned its house to teach it a lesson.
