Thoughts on Collective Character

I'm human. I've done a number of things in my life that I'm not proud of. I've made mistakes and I've made poor decisions and I've sometimes even acted in spite, malice, or with slightly ulterior motives.

I suppose this is part of the human condition. I suppose sometimes, for numerous possible reasons, folks behave badly. . .and sometimes it's not even intentional. Please understand this post is not about passing judgment. That would be entertaining tho wouldn't it?

One of the greatest gifts is to be offered forgiveness.

And one of the greatest opportunities is to earn trust, to genuinely attempt to redeem oneself.

But isn't it true that no matter what you do after an offense, you are left with a lingering sense of disappointment with yourself? Something is altered in the relationship you have with the person that you offended. And for me at least, something is altered in my view of myself.

Why am I spouting off?

It's a convergence of events that have lead me to wonder about humanity, morals, values. . .CHARACTER. . .In no particular order:

1. Tiger Woods. Huh? More money than gawd, a beautiful wife, healthy family. . .What's with the alleged affair? I can't pretend to know what it feels like to be Tiger. The pressure must be nearly unbearable at times. I just hope that he realizes what a role model he is for tons of young men and women. I hope he knows that people everywhere aren't expecting him to be perfect but they are expecting a swift righting of his moral compass. Do the right thing, be a good husband and father. We need that.

2. Sexting. . .A 13 year-old girl hung herself. Yes. Hung herself from her bed because a topless pic she sent to a boy she liked went viral and the backlash was more than she was prepared to handle. These are the things that positively scare me to death when I contemplate raising children. How will I ever be able to guide them through all the land mines? You can't just "grow up" anymore. Every move you make is now able to be analyzed, mocked, critiqued on YouTube, texts, bogs, im's, etc. In my day, teenage girls could still be cruel but our only outlet was a marker and a bathroom wall. We didn't have the entire WWW to broadcast our immature rudeness. I'm not sure how we fix this? I do know it's tragic and senseless and it's urgent we figure this out.

3. Malcolm Gladwell - I read a story he wrote about intellectual property and plagiarism. This was timely reading for me because a co-worker recently essentially plagiarized my a good bit of my resume. Gladwell always offers at least three interesting perspectives or musings. When I first learned of the "offense" I laughed. After a few days to stew about it, I was livid. But I couldn't exactly explain why stealing someone else's resume was wrong. I couldn't really articulate it. Everyone I spoke to about it, agreed it was horrible and demonstrated a lack of integrity on the part of hte "borrower." We discussed ways I could "confront" the "borrower." But the bottom line was I couldn't articulate anything more than I felt wronged because I spent the time writing and editing hte resume and he essentially stole it. It's not like a resume is intellectual property. It's not like a resume is copyrighted. It's not like we're bound by an academic honor code.

I guess in the end, it came down to what all these other scenarios come down to: character. If Tiger Woods thought a little more, if the sexting teen's tormentors, if the resume thief thought a little more about their character I would have nothing to bitch about this evening.

Character is powerful. Follow your moral compass. Do the right thing, at the right time, for the right reasons. You'll sleep well. You'll do well. You'll live well.