Mrs. Do Right

There is a sign over my desk at work that simply states, "Do the right thing, even when no one is watching." I did not put this up over my desk, it is one of the company's mottos and has partners that say things such as "To be respected, be respectful." and "Have fun at work." The one about doing the right thing just happens to be over my desk. The funny thing is that my desk is actually only a chair and filing cabinet's width of a desk that extends across a long room and is home to about seven other employees. So, with everybody watching, I sometimes sit and look at that poster with its wise remark and think to myself "Well, of course." Who doesn't want to "do the right thing?" People remind themselves of this in as many ways as possible when considering the options in any decision. "What would Jesus do?" and "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." (Which, I might add is a rather commonly misunderstood statement.) Even the therapist's advice to count to 10 before acting is a version of this reminder. The real question is, do we actually do the right thing, even when no one is watching? Or in other words, when we don't think we would get caught? For most of us the answer to this question is a resounding "no." And here I am with a constant reminder staring at me all day long and when faced with exactly that kind of decision, I can't even rationalize to do the right thing. Does this mean I am a bad person? Does this mean my soul is doomed and karma is going to come and kick my ass? I don't know actually. When I finally figured out what the "right thing" would have been (a few hours after the fact) I realized that it was a futile act anyway. But I think that is the point. The futility of the right thing is the "no one watching" part. For most day to day wrong doings there is really no harm done. I think that people really look up to heroes because they are demonstrations of how we expect ourselves to be. But it is quite impractical. If you find $20 on the street, are you going to take it to the police station? Are you going to put up signs around town advertising that you found $20 and whoever lost it please come claim it? Would you just leave it there in hopes that the loser of the $20 would come back looking for it? What you would probably think about is how much you could really use that $20 and how lucky you are to have found it. Now think about it this way. If you lost $20, what would you want someone to do to help you get it back? Could they do anything? Maybe not. So what is the right thing to do?

Take a look at yourself and honestly ask the question, "Would I do the right thing, if no one was watching?"