Choices: Don't Screw Up

We make choices and decisions every day; and most of the time, a small part of the time anyway, these choices don't affect anyone but ourselves.  So, good or bad, right or wrong, we'll be happy with these choices and go merrily skipping down the yellow brick road.  But there is a certain percentage of these choices, a very important percentage of these choices, that will affect someone else, for good or bad, right or wrong...it's these kind of choices that you are universally responsible for.  And when it's my life that is touched by someone else's choices, especially when they were not the wisest decision to make, that's when I get angry; that's when my sense of justice gets all whipped up into a white heat---

Is there no honor anymore?  Who the hell would encourage their offspring to make negative choices, to do something that could have future repercussions on not only the child but the parent or parents as well and anyone else connected to them?...someone with no moral scruples and half a brain, that's who.

As I was told by a very wise man (my step-dad):  "Always take the moral high ground, life stays simple that way."

I've not always seen eye to eye with this man in my life, but I have always respected him.  When he speaks these words, you know that he is also living them.  He's upheld this concept within his own life, and through his work-- he's a retired congressional investigator for the federal government.  He's had to testify countless times before congress on issues of vice and fraud.  Justice and honor are set at a higher level for this man; the concept of  "right and wrong" is pivotal, and decisions and choices are set to a standard that leaves no question as to the moral fiber.

My message to the individual I'm so hoping to connect with here is this:

Straighten out what you know needs fixing-- like a vaccination for a disease-- it might sting a little, but you'll be healthier for it in the future.  Stop denying that you did something wrong, especially when it's down in black and white.  If it was a parent or someone in authority who did this in your name, confront them, make them explain themselves, tell them it's time for them to stand up and accept the consequences.   Don't use adults from your past who were poor role-models to define who you are today, or why you have or haven't succeeded.  Don't let all that anger you carry from the injustices you suffered as a child prevent you from being all that you can be.