Nature is very magnanimous. This is a most comforting fact. Though the concepts of good and bad are normative and will vary from person to person and from culture to culture. There is a certain goodness that defies or goes beyond person specific or culture specific value attribution. These are self evident things that we inherently find 'right' or 'good' based on our nature. Some examples would be: generosity, teaching, loyalty, love, compassion. It is hard to think that these values could be seen as 'not good' by a certain individual or culture. It seems that there is a certain psychic payoff one derives when one indulges in such virtuous acts. Nature is very magnanimous when it comes to correcting one's path or direction when it comes to these virtues.
You may have gone a hundred miles in the wrong direction but a U turn will set you on the right path. You may have been hungry for seven days but the next meal will fulfill you. You may have been a jerk all your life but a single stroke of asking for forgiveness will wipe the slate clean and liberate you and the other party. You may have been guilty all your life about what you did but in a single act of making amends you can set yourself on the path to recovery and forgiving yourself. You may have been a free loader all your life but in a single instant you can make up your mind to contribute and set on that path. Incidentally, the wronged party does not want anything else from you but a recognition of what you have done and an apology. Is it not nature's ultimate love for us that a single act of acknowledgement can liberate both parties?
Even though the wrong may have been committed for a period of time, it does not take an equal amount of time to correct it. A single instance of correcting your path, admitting your mistake suffices. We take this for granted. We know it is so. But we have never marveled that it is so. While the wrong is accumulative, the right is instantaneous. Why should a system be such? It is conceivable that system could have been such that right had to be undertaken for an equal length of time or even more for the wrong to be corrected. Why it could not be that you have to eat for seven days to get fulfilled? Why it could not be that you have to apologize a million times and make amends before the wronged party could move on, could forgive you, hug you and say 'All my life I waited for you to say sorry and now I can die in peace. I love you'.
These alternative designs are possible to imagine. But nature is what it is. It takes a second to set things right. This is perhaps nature's biggest gift to us.
You may have gone a hundred miles in the wrong direction but a U turn will set you on the right path. You may have been hungry for seven days but the next meal will fulfill you. You may have been a jerk all your life but a single stroke of asking for forgiveness will wipe the slate clean and liberate you and the other party. You may have been guilty all your life about what you did but in a single act of making amends you can set yourself on the path to recovery and forgiving yourself. You may have been a free loader all your life but in a single instant you can make up your mind to contribute and set on that path. Incidentally, the wronged party does not want anything else from you but a recognition of what you have done and an apology. Is it not nature's ultimate love for us that a single act of acknowledgement can liberate both parties?
Even though the wrong may have been committed for a period of time, it does not take an equal amount of time to correct it. A single instance of correcting your path, admitting your mistake suffices. We take this for granted. We know it is so. But we have never marveled that it is so. While the wrong is accumulative, the right is instantaneous. Why should a system be such? It is conceivable that system could have been such that right had to be undertaken for an equal length of time or even more for the wrong to be corrected. Why it could not be that you have to eat for seven days to get fulfilled? Why it could not be that you have to apologize a million times and make amends before the wronged party could move on, could forgive you, hug you and say 'All my life I waited for you to say sorry and now I can die in peace. I love you'.
These alternative designs are possible to imagine. But nature is what it is. It takes a second to set things right. This is perhaps nature's biggest gift to us.
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