In spite of my ranting and raving there are still good people in the world – even if none exist in my own neighborhood! In western secular countries like Australia, you can still catch a glimpse of human decency especially if you stand still long enough and keep your eyes open wide enough.
For example, you see it in the woman who stops to help a young girl who’s dog has been run over on a major road. The woman makes a conscious choice to pull over when all other drivers pretend they don’t see anything going on and drive past the youngster’s tragedy.
You see it in the teacher who puts her pupils first, in spite of her back stabbing discriminatory colleagues who stop at nothing to get the cushy teaching jobs – year in, year out. The teacher has a habit of biting her tongue and getting on with the actual teaching, even though her own life has been made miserable by her co-workers.
You see it in the guy who continues to get up every morning even though all his hopes and dreams have been dashed by life’s unpredictability. In spite of his accumulated hardships, he continues to embark on new endeavors each and everyday – hoping that just one of them will bring some purpose to his life. He is the archetypal figure of stubbornness who refuses to give up on life, even though everyone else thinks life has given up on him.
Courage is a precious thing and cannot exist without decency. I have witnessed it first hand through these people and its rare occurrence continues to keep me going when the cowardice of the majority crashes over me like an insurmountable wave.
What people often miss, is that the courageous aren’t rich and have few resources to spare. They tend to become possessed (or is that obsessed) by the urge to manifest decency in the visible world and find it hard not to follow through on that urge. When they do achieve a win for their efforts, something or someone is often saved but the courageous rarely receive any personal gain. Alternately when they lose, the loss is always personal and sometimes substantial. The price the courageous pay can be financial, interpersonal, health based, or a loss of safety and security.
Years ago, I had the misfortune of listening in on a conversation led by an individual who had never lifted a finger in his life to help another human being. He was “slagging off” about a true hero, someone who had tried to save a drowning homeless person but instead drowned himself. The coward’s argument was that the dead hero should never have tried to save the homeless person, for the hero’s life was far more important than the homeless man’s life. If the hero had just minded his own business he would still be alive, and that’s all that mattered!
Such heartless attitudes, highlight how people’s social responses continue to be good or bad – right or wrong. Irrespective of whether you believe people’s responses can be categorized in this way or whether a God oversees such categories, a person can’t escape the repercussions of indifference as it has an uncanny ability to haunt one in the wee hours of the morn. For better or worse our human psyche is founded on such values and even the coward’s conscience will cause them distress until they either seek absolution for their lack of decency and/or die. Either way, a life that lacks decency eventually becomes meaningless.
I for one hope that I continue to grow in regards to decency, and believe that I’ll know when this occurs as my actions will become bolder and more courageous. My wife on the other hand, has nothing more to prove. She is already the most courageous person I know and everyone who encounters her always benefits from her decency – especially the children she teaches. ;)
Dedication (For my wife Helen and her friend Belinda Adams)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2009