I don’t know how you define right and wrong in life. The subject is certainly beyond my authority, if I had any to contribute. What many people call “right” is simply an opinion and what they call “wrong” just differs from their preferences or deviates from their traditions.
Yet, in many ways, we are all connected through a sense of general right and wrong, even when we don’t always agree on the specifics or applications.
Disputes of right and wrong exist in our society as they have across every era. Debates rage now about the rightness or wrongness of things like vaccines and mask mandates, taxes and entitlement programs, how to raise and lead youth, and plenty more.
To be clear, these are not new debates. Not by any measure. They are, at the core, the debates every society has engaged in across history. These are just our versions in our era.
What is the product of all these debates? Who is “winning” them? What grand reward are the winner’s gaining? What improvement are we as a collective people seeing from the contentious arguing and labeling of who we think is right and who is wrong?
I can’t speak to ultimate rightness or wrongness. I can only speak to what seems right or wrong to me, what feels right or wrong, or what I have defined to be right and wrong for my own life. Your definitions might vary. They will vary depending on the models you draw from to understand right and wrong.
Once I have framed my views of right and wrong, my primary responsibility is not to demand that others adhere to my views or even respect my views. My first and primary responsibility is to demand that I adhere to my views, that I respect my views enough to live them with a discipline worthy of respect. I am responsible for embodying my beliefs of right and wrong, not projecting them onto someone else.
It is enough for you to live and align with what seems right and to distance yourself from what seems wrong. That effort is enough because it will demand everything from you. Still you will be imperfect in your attempt, as will I.
Make your life a shining reflection of what you want others to see, respect, and become more attracted towards. Your environment needs your example, not your criticism and judgment.
Answer the call. Do the work.
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