Thursday, January 14, 2016

WONDROUS THING: Embrace your ethical dilemmas (but don't be a doofus)


Life is filled with dilemmas:
  • Should you, or should you not, take your child's hoverboard for a spin? (Click here to see boxer Mike Tyson answering this question for us.)
  • Should you, or should you not, begin flirting online with a person who happens not to be the same person you are married to?
  • Should you, or should you not, take the risk of doing something you know to be illegal, saying to yourself that you're too smart to possibly get caught?

In these instances - and in countless others throughout our lives - there exists a magical moment that precedes them all. A moment just before we climb up on the hoverboard. Just before we text that intriguing new person. Just before we break the law. A golden moment - right before we do something incredibly stupid - when we have the ability to choose otherwise.

The classic story in the Torah on this issue occurs just before Cain decides to bump off his brother, Abel, in a fit of jealousy.  God kindly reminds Cain that "Sin (or 'stupidity' if you prefer) couches at the door; Its urge is towards you, yet you can be its master." (Genesis 4:7)

Of course, Cain ignores this advice.  The question is - the next time stupidity inevitably couches at our door - will we?

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So, are you the master at such moments, or do such moments master you? 


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