Lately I’ve been thinking about how small the difference is between a good person and a bad one.
People like to imagine good and evil sitting far apart. I don’t think they are. Some of the time a single decision is the whole distance.
Most bad decisions don’t feel evil while you’re making them. Your mind hands you the reasons. You’re justified, they deserve it, nobody will know, it isn’t a big deal. For a moment both sides sound right, and that’s the part that scares me.
There are moments where the choice sits at about fifty-fifty: take the thing or leave it, hurt someone or walk away, tell the truth or lie. From the inside it doesn’t feel like a test of character. It feels like a fight in your own head, and you don’t know which side of you won until it’s over.
People become dangerous when they decide they’re incapable of doing wrong. The ones I trust are the ones who know they could cross the line and don’t.
Maybe being good isn’t purity. Maybe it’s seeing the line and staying on this side of it. I hope I keep seeing it.