Decisive qualities: to do what is right

A wonderful girlfriend of mine and I talked about “the one” two evenings ago. Maybe you know how it is when girls get together … Personally I am convinced that I have found him, my friend is single right now. Anyways, while enjoying soup and a sip of wine we started talking about men and how to detect a possible “the one”. She told me that already years ago – when her sister asked her about something her future husband absolutely needed to be like – she told her surprised sister without thinking about it: A man who does not leave me when I give birth to a handicaped baby. So I shared something with her that I had thought about last weekend and shared with my beloved that day.
Last Sunday we watched the movie “To kill a mockingbird” on TV together. I don’t know how many of you are familiar with the movie (with Gregory Peck) or the book, so here is some context: In the early 20th century, Atticus Finch, a widower with two young children, takes up the defence of a poor young black man who is prosecuted for supposedly having beaten up and tried to rape a white young woman. And even though Atticus knows very well the consequences his decision will have, he proves in court the black man’s innocence and the guilt of the girl’s father. Nevertheless, the jury finds the man guilty. Atticus has to face misunderstanding and even hatred by some of the town’s white population.
But he did what was right. Even though doing what was right brought negative consequences with it. It would have been easier to just let it go, not care (it was obvious the jury would find him guilty anyway), to take the “easy” decision – the comfortable decision.
Personally I think, that doing right because it is right is not “in fashion” anymore in the eyes of the majority. First check out the consequences, than take the decision – the decision that offers the better results for you. If it requires “bending the truth”, do it. If it requires letting somebody down, do it. If it requires breaking some rules or even laws, do it. As long as there is enough in it for you and the risk not too big, do it. It seems to me that very often this is what modern society tells us. Maybe not openly, but the tendencies are surely there. First myself and then who cares…
This is not what I want. I want a man who does what is right. Not because of what he can gain from doing the right thing, but exactely and “only” because it IS the right thing.