I know, I know, I've been neglectful. It's been extremely busy at work and the Admiral has the social calendar on over full right now. Alas I know its not an excuse.
Let's get to it...
When I was a kid I went to a lot of church. And I mean a lot of church. A light week was 4 – 5 times. To say that like many folks I was raised on the “fear of God and the feel of the rod” approach would be an understatement. I also read and collected more than my fair share of Comic Books. I grew up with the overly romanticized notion that good things happen to good people and that doing the right thing made you special and in so many ways “better” than the average human being. Not in a superiority sort of way although I’m certain I’ve come across that way to some folks.
Our society is based on the same basic principles. “Do what’s right”, “look after your fellow man”, and so on. If the world ever collectively faltered on these points the amount of chaos that would ensue would be catastrophic. I once read that character was doing what’s right when no one is watching.
But what if its all bullshit? What if its all a lie? What if we’re all the same and not one of us is better than the other? Does great responsibility really come with great power? Does Camelot really exist? And is it worth fighting for? Or maybe its all just a bunch of windmills and the dragons have long since been slayed.
Look around you. Read the news. Bad things usually happen to good people. People with power constantly and consistently abuse it without recourse. God is either sleeping at the wheel or non existent in most people’s lives. I don’t mean to say that people don’t believe. On the contrary, most do. I just don’t see much evidence to suggest that this belief is doing them any good. The belief in a higher power is often nothing more than an excuse for forcing others to believe as you do.
Ultimately, most of us are just fighting to survive. But it’s the rules of this conflict that intrigue me. One of the best people I know is a superb father, a fantastic employee and the sort of friend that anyone would be lucky to have. I can only hope that I’ve been as good a friend to him as he’s been to me. But in a lot of ways he’s very unhappy. He’s in love. Just not with his wife. This could easily morph into a discussion on Poly-Amorous relationships and the like but that’s a topic for another day. He’s fighting the great windmill of guilt. It’s a crisis of faith and identity.
His dilemma is that in order to allow himself to fully love this other person he will have to come to grips with the idea that he is just like everyone else. That he’s just as vulnerable to temptation as we are. That he’s HUMAN. And more importantly, that it’s ok. This is certainly easier said than done. It means accepting that you lie, cheat, and steal just like everyone else. It means admitting that you’re not the person you thought you were.
The things is (and there’s always a thing) that this Person – the Super Hero good guy type – doesn’t really exist. It’s the Yin Yang theory all over again. You can’t have a Super Hero without automatically creating a Super Villain. No Superman without a Lex Luthor. No Batman without The Joker. We’re all nothing more than shades of grey. Every morning when most of us get up we make a subconscious decision to do the right thing. We decide we’re going to be “that guy”. Will we still lie, cheat and steal? Yes. Does it make us bad people? No it doesn’t.
For my part…I’ll always be that guy. I’m afraid I don’t know how to be anyone else. I’ll still lie, cheat and steal from time to time. And I guess I’ve come to accept that part of me on some level. But in the end when the ashes have been scattered I suspect the stone will read, “Here Lies Chad Johnson; He Died Doing The Right Thing.”
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