Scenario: You did something which is unfair - it gets you 'credit' and leads to someone else missing out on the 'credit'. The other person doesn't know about it. When you are officially given the 'credit', what would you do? Would you own up saying that the credit really belongs to the other person or would you just leave it?
I wondered about it a few minutes after the incident occurred. It reminded me of a parallel - in cricket whenever we see a batsman walk off on his own even though the umpire didn't give him out, we usually feel good about it - you feel happy that the batsman did the right thing because he knew that he edged the ball, he knew the bowler was better than him and he knew it wasn't fair for him to stay.
It's easy looking into someone else's life and commenting on what they should have done; but what would you really do? I think most of us wouldn't own up; and it frightens me that since we don't own up for something that is minor, what if the stakes were higher?
The other aspect is how can you tell what is right and what is wrong? Something that my conscience feels is right, yours might feel is wrong and vice versa. So the person who got the credit might not even have felt that it was wrong; the batsman who nicked the ball, but didn't walk off, might feel that in the grand scheme of things everything will even out. The umpire didn't catch him today but on another day the umpire might give him out even though he wasn't out - the plusses and minuses even out in the end! Do they? Maybe they do, maybe they don't... what if they don't?
What if the stakes were higher? What if your decision to leave the situation as it is, ends up doing harm to the other person who deserved the credit? Do you still consider yourself right?
It is strange how we act and react in different circumstances; anyway, keep pondering... time to hit bed; time to step into the other world...
I wondered about it a few minutes after the incident occurred. It reminded me of a parallel - in cricket whenever we see a batsman walk off on his own even though the umpire didn't give him out, we usually feel good about it - you feel happy that the batsman did the right thing because he knew that he edged the ball, he knew the bowler was better than him and he knew it wasn't fair for him to stay.
It's easy looking into someone else's life and commenting on what they should have done; but what would you really do? I think most of us wouldn't own up; and it frightens me that since we don't own up for something that is minor, what if the stakes were higher?
The other aspect is how can you tell what is right and what is wrong? Something that my conscience feels is right, yours might feel is wrong and vice versa. So the person who got the credit might not even have felt that it was wrong; the batsman who nicked the ball, but didn't walk off, might feel that in the grand scheme of things everything will even out. The umpire didn't catch him today but on another day the umpire might give him out even though he wasn't out - the plusses and minuses even out in the end! Do they? Maybe they do, maybe they don't... what if they don't?
What if the stakes were higher? What if your decision to leave the situation as it is, ends up doing harm to the other person who deserved the credit? Do you still consider yourself right?
It is strange how we act and react in different circumstances; anyway, keep pondering... time to hit bed; time to step into the other world...
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