โ conscience -> personalities? ->principles! โ
Posted: Tue, Oct 25, 2005 05:38:59 AM
it would be so nice to write in this forum that i always listened to my conscience, ignored personalities and applied a spiritual principle, but that would be far from honest. the truth is that i am human and far from being perfect or even saintly. a more apt description would be that i am an addict in recovery suffering from the human condition. sometimes i feel justified in ignoring someone who i find grating and irritating. sometimes i can rationalize disrespecting someone who is different. and justifications and rationalizations will only get me high again.
when i started this whole gig, i liked to say that i had no conscience, that i was an amoral asshole. but actually i did have a moral or two running around inside my head, but i medicated the voice of my conscience away, so i would not have to face the self-recrimination of behaving badly. my motives were always pure -- how could i use this person, or situation, to find the ways and means to get high.
today, i find myself in a variety of situations where situational ethics could be used, you know, sacrificing my spiritual principles for what may seem (at least to me) a greater good. after all, don’t i know that sometimes the ends justify the means! well ends and means, and situational ethics are topics for another day, today i am concerned with listening to my conscience, doing the next right thing, with total disregard of someone else‘s personality issues. nowhere in our literature does it say that i have to like everyone, merely that i do my best, right here and right now to put aside what i see as personality issues and treat each person i interact with, with the same respect that i desire. that in of itself is difficult enough, but you know what, today i am worth that effort!
∞ DT ∞
when i started this whole gig, i liked to say that i had no conscience, that i was an amoral asshole. but actually i did have a moral or two running around inside my head, but i medicated the voice of my conscience away, so i would not have to face the self-recrimination of behaving badly. my motives were always pure -- how could i use this person, or situation, to find the ways and means to get high.
today, i find myself in a variety of situations where situational ethics could be used, you know, sacrificing my spiritual principles for what may seem (at least to me) a greater good. after all, don’t i know that sometimes the ends justify the means! well ends and means, and situational ethics are topics for another day, today i am concerned with listening to my conscience, doing the next right thing, with total disregard of someone else‘s personality issues. nowhere in our literature does it say that i have to like everyone, merely that i do my best, right here and right now to put aside what i see as personality issues and treat each person i interact with, with the same respect that i desire. that in of itself is difficult enough, but you know what, today i am worth that effort!
∞ DT ∞