Both these comments got me thinking. Erik, while I agree that there's probably no ideal to *get back to*, there may be an ideal to go forward with. Not so much what someone else did in the past, but what we envision as the ideal for the future--and which must be larger than anyone's ego or greed.
Terry, your point is well taken. Maybe the term *purity* holds us up in thinking about this? I find that if I substitute the word
integrity, then I'm more able to answer the question. Example: one person's purity is another's contamination. But integrity has elements that translate across individual styles and preferences (I think).
Am I full of it, or have we stumbled onto something here?