Dual
Nature
“When
I was young, my ambition was to be one of the people who made a
difference in this world. My hope is to leave the world a little
better for having been there.”
Jim
Henson
The
winter edition of the magazine, Parabola, is on the topic of
Goodness: what does it mean, how do we achieve it, what keeps us from
living it? It's an interesting study about the dual nature of
humankind. We want to do the right thing, but we are at the same time
selfish, and want what we want. Take the Good Samaritan story in the
Bible as an example. We assume that each of the players in it, the
ones who pass the poor fellow by, and the one who finally stops to
help, are distinctly different people. But truly, they represent the
different aspects of each of us. On the one hand, we want to be
“good,” and on the other, we hate to be inconvenienced by some
messy situation that is undoubtedly going to cost us time and
treasure. We are split by our own duality.
This
ethical dilemma is as old as humanity itself. We can't help that we
are of two natures, we can only choose between them on a
moment-to-moment basis. When we are acting from the 'good' in our
nature, we are in concert with our ethical ideals and principals, and
when we turn to anger and violence, we have lost that contact. Just
as Jim Henson notes in the quote above, in our heart of hearts, we all
want to make a difference, to leave the world a better place. We must
make the choice between these two sides in almost every decision
every day. And, we must realize that every other person is walking in
the same skin—each has the same capacity for good or evil as we do,
and each is juggling the same inconsistencies. It's not that easy
being green, y'all! Which side will you choose today?
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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