Yesterday morning, I had a chat with the former dean of our college about work standards and ethics. Both of us are of the mind that people should do what they ought to do, whether someone requires it of them or not. However, the attitude of the world seems to be to get a better radar detector and thereby avoid consequences of misbehavior rather than invite the consequences of correct behavior.
The law is not enforced equally when enforced by people. While a teenager, I first became aware of cops when, one Sunday, several prominent families in my congregation arrived unexpectedly late to church. They had all been ticketed at an intersection near the chapel where members of the Faith were known to drive through the stop sign. This week, a small boy confronted a LVMP officer here in town for parking his motorcycle in a pedestrian throughway so he could go get a soda from a convenience store. We have people everywhere who are rewarded, not on their merits, but on their associations, and elsewhere we have people who believe that it’s only a crime if you get caught. Rarely do they have a good answer for what it is when you are accused of a crime you didn’t commit.
Most of my friends drive like bats out of hell and hope to avoid tickets. I had a student this term who admitted being late twice because she was being issued a speeding ticket. Like folks did when I was a new driver, her lab partner suggested she needed a better radar gun. I told her that the best tonic was to start obeying the law. I told her of a time on the US95 when a policeman followed me because I dared to pass him. He was driving 57 in a 65 zone, so I went around him as soon as I could. If it is justice with which you threaten me, I am not threatened.
Rather than do what is right, people are anxious to find new ways to avoid being caught. Imagine my surprise to read about an app for smart phones so you can cheat on your partner without being caught. Now there’s an app for adultery. The paradox is that when you try to cheat, you must continually raise the stakes to keep up the pace and keep ahead of the cops. Don’t believe me? Watch “Next”. No matter what he tries, eventually the cops catch up with him, and he can see the future. Eventually the truth comes out and you have to face the music, even if that time doesn’t come until judgment day.
Mr. Miyagi offered us the best advice on how to avoid dangerous situations. “Best way avoid fight? Not be there.” You cannot be hurt by things you don’t actually do in a just situation, and so rather than finding a better way to cheat the system, let the system exalt you. Even people who disbelieve in God believe in karma, and so we all agree that what a man sows he shall reap, and eventually it catches up. I am frustrated along with you about people who eat whatever they like without getting fat, disappear from work whenever they like without being fired, take whatever liberties they like without losing face, and exercise whatever power they like without accountability. Wednesday night, when a friend of mine suggested that she should become a jerk and that would help her get a guy since “guys always pick mean girls”, I convinced her that even if it worked it wouldn’t lead her to a man with whom a happy and healthy relationship was likely. What goes around really comes around. The universe is spherical, and eventually things will finish the round trip.
Just as there are consequences for bad behavior, there are consequences for good behavior. Even if the guilty only feel guilt, the righteous can count on feelings of peace. Even if the wicked are rewarded with money, the righteous are rewarded with reputation, honor, and remembrance, which cannot be taken from them. I know our choices stem from our values, and sometimes it’s hard to value things that can’t even get you lunch off the value menu, but when you achieve something moral people can’t rescind it like they did to Watson’s Nobel Prize. The good lives after you too. It survives you in the lives led by the people you touch, the family you raise, and the strangers inspired by your life. What you’re really passing on is your example, and that’s a legacy that lasts.
No comments:
Post a Comment