Character and Impact

Click to see the physiology/sociology/psychology path.  Cross reference that with what you know.

Walking down main street with my dad, we were talking about good and bad people. We happened to be in front of the bank, so dad said, "What if a fellow walking by here has to fight for all he's worth to NOT rob the bank; it's hard, but he manages. Among us, which is the hero?"

No two of us are the same, of course. No two are equally equipped, no two are equally complete or prepared, equally weak or strong. Every encounter is unique. We get to choose, but even that labor is ours alone.

It's worth the labor to understand that I and my  adversary have arrived here by different paths.  It's likely that neither was a perfectly noble journey, and equally likely that there were perhaps moments of magnificence for both.  

There's probably a reason he told us that.

Shall I then judge the one with whom I might walk as somehow inferior because he hasn't seen what I've seen and reached the same conclusions?   

We can ignore this concept and move on, of course.  And waste a few more years before we consider it again.  We do that.  It's a shame, but we do.  We make excuses and stay angry ... or we make progress and change.