DocAndersen
I remember many years ago I bought a bike. It was very cheap but cool looking. It never really worked well. My dad let me get the bike, he had advised me not to, and I remember when the bike finally broke for the last time (and was not fixable) that I got mad at my father. He told me a story that I have never forgotten. “You are visiting friends in Chicago. You end up separated from your friends, and to catch up with them, you have two choices to make. The first is to speed up and walk much faster and go around the lit block to catch up. Or, you cut down the dark alley. You do see a person in that alley. It is not a dark and empty alley it is a dark occupied alley.”
What do you do?
My father’s point then, there is a lot more to the story, and you can frame it, either way, the person in the alley mugs you, or offers you a flashlight. The point is the most thing for you is to know what you are going to do first. Then you worry about what other people are going to do. Your ethics matter most to you first. Then you worry you worry about the alley. Then you worry about the dark. Finally, you worry about the ethics of the other person. My dad was always good for taking teachable moments and teaching me. The reality of the bike was that I wanted a cool five-speed stingray bike. I didn’t, however, understand the ethics of the person selling it. It was cheap.
Your ethics are the most important thing.
So today was the end of the 365-day photo challenge. It took me 368 days. I finished, 1 day at a time. 1 picture a day. I fell behind 3 days because I just couldn’t post due to travel and other issues. I didn’t always post amazing pictures but they were always taken by me and less than 7 days old. The rules of the challenge are as important as anything. Your ethics as my father would say. I can justify doing anything, but if I have to compromise my ethics to do it, then, in the end, the only person it hurts is me. As I said the story ends one of two ways. You blithely plunge down the dark alley and get mugged. Or you consider, you evaluate and in the end choose to carefully walk down the alley. When the person speaks to you, you say hello. They offer you a flashlight or to walk with you for the rest of the way. Or, they say I’ve lost my phone can you help me?
Your ethics are the most important thing.
