Absolute or Relative

I was talking to a friend the other day about our culture and how it seems today people think in terms of relativity, not absolutes.  Many will tell you that good or evil is based on your position, or your perception.  They don’t believe in absolutes.  Some people have a sliding scale of ethics, relative to the situation or actions effect on themselves.  I disagree with this type of thinking.

I believe in absolutes.  There is a right and a wrong.  There is good and evil.  There is truth in the world.  I don’t buy into the sliding scale of ethics.  It doesn’t matter how it affects me personally, that is not a determination of right or wrong.  Many times the right path is the harder path, and the easier path is the wrong path.  Convenience and ease don’t relate to ethics.

I’m not saying you have to live perfectly, I don’t know anyone who is perfect.  But I am saying that we make choices normally based on how they affect ourselves, and we know what’s right and what’s wrong.  To benefit oneself at the expense of another is wrong.  Many people don’t think much about these things, I guess because it would mean facing up to the fact that they are living life by abusing others.  Some people probably don’t care, others avoid reality by immursing themselves in distracting activites.

I used to do sales and personal development trainings all over the country, and many people would come up to me and say that they didn’t like themselves very much.  They drank too much, or didn’t spend enough time with their families, or cheated on their spouses, or treated their bodies like “woodsheds instead of temples,” or gave up on their dreams.  Professional, “successful,” adults would routinely tell me stories like this. 

I was always amazed at the fact that people have been given the power of free-will and choice, and yet they choose to undermine themselves!  For me, it all boils down to how you feel about yourself.  Your self-image.  If you routinely do the right thing, your self-image will improve and your personal power will get stronger.  If you put off doing what’s right, and instead partake in what’s fun and easy the majority of the time, your self-image will suffer.  BOTH of these paths have a snowball effect, taking you higher or lower.  Zig Ziglar said it well, “If you are hard on yourself, life will be easy on you.  If you are easy on yourself, life will be very hard on you.”  I remember a quote from the NBA great Dr. J (Julius Erving) who when asked how he was so consistently successful at basketball, he responded “I demand more from myself than anyone else could ever dream of.”  Good advice.  Take the right path in life, not necessarily the easy one.

If you are raising a family, your own actions will have dramatic effects on the lives of other people (your kids and their kids).  So be true, and be sincere.  The more little things you accomplish, the better you will feel and that will start the snowball. 

Tags: , absolute, children, choice, dads, dadsworld, dr. j., free-will, freedom, julius erving, moms, NBA, parenting, professional, relative, self-image, success, zig ziglar