How easy it is to lead a life of duplicity,
When there are no tough moral choices to make.
How easy it is to violate every law,
As long as you think you wouldn’t get caught.
To copy software illegally,
To cheat on taxes,
To use office property like your own,
To lie about the actual hours you worked,
To go and talk dirty on the Internet under the cloak of anonymity,
To play politics and rationalize that’s the way to get ahead in life.
How easy it is to gossip about others,
To pry into their private lives,
To assassinate their character,
To laugh at their misery,
To rudely cut them off when they are talking,
To kill their spirit by spiteful and snide remarks,
To lie through your teeth and convince them you are sincere.
How easy it is to feel jealous,
Even about your friends’ success.
How easy it is to invent reasons,
Why you couldn’t do it and they could.
How easy it is to forget about your parents,
Once they have made you what you are today.
To convince yourself you are doing your bit,
By sending an occasional card or some cash.
How easy it is to think
Your child is getting good care,
While all you do is, substitute time with money,
And personal attention with the latest toy.
How easy it is to convince yourself it’s just a friendship,
When you know very well,
If not for the lust that lurks beneath,
You would never even bother to talk to her.
How easy it is to let your heart decide over your head,
By believing in all the crap about romance you read.
How easy it is to wonder later what went wrong,
When you know very well, it never was there in the first place.
And how tough it is to do the proper thing!
Dear God! How tough it is to make the right decision!
When there are no tough moral choices to make.
How easy it is to violate every law,
As long as you think you wouldn’t get caught.
To copy software illegally,
To cheat on taxes,
To use office property like your own,
To lie about the actual hours you worked,
To go and talk dirty on the Internet under the cloak of anonymity,
To play politics and rationalize that’s the way to get ahead in life.
How easy it is to gossip about others,
To pry into their private lives,
To assassinate their character,
To laugh at their misery,
To rudely cut them off when they are talking,
To kill their spirit by spiteful and snide remarks,
To lie through your teeth and convince them you are sincere.
How easy it is to feel jealous,
Even about your friends’ success.
How easy it is to invent reasons,
Why you couldn’t do it and they could.
How easy it is to forget about your parents,
Once they have made you what you are today.
To convince yourself you are doing your bit,
By sending an occasional card or some cash.
How easy it is to think
Your child is getting good care,
While all you do is, substitute time with money,
And personal attention with the latest toy.
How easy it is to convince yourself it’s just a friendship,
When you know very well,
If not for the lust that lurks beneath,
You would never even bother to talk to her.
How easy it is to let your heart decide over your head,
By believing in all the crap about romance you read.
How easy it is to wonder later what went wrong,
When you know very well, it never was there in the first place.
And how tough it is to do the proper thing!
Dear God! How tough it is to make the right decision!
It's never easy to be dishonest. It eats into your psyche, soul... whatever.
ReplyDeleteBut this poem paints this world in black and white. There are other shades and hues. What about those areas in between.
*I'm pretty self-centered. ( I'm honest about it. So? Does that benefit anyone at all? )
* Was never a good child, and am not proving a good parent.
But am trying. (Still honest but no good. )
* I don't violate laws or make personal use of public property. Unless you consider
picking extra napkins at Coldstone for my kids as a violation of ethics.
Honest but useless piece of info.
* I'm far from an ideal citizen. I do not do all I can for the society or for country. I do not care. As long as I am not violating any law or my own moral ethic(which I realize is pretty feeble)... I am ok being a non-entity... a wall flower in the society.
(Again my honesty will not help anyone. Not even me. I tried rectifying it by doing actions. I simply frustrated myself. )
*I refrain from talking about others behind their back. I make more enemies by talking to people directly on their face. I am not sure what I gain by that except a rub on my ego that I was not talking behind someone's back. (lame.. I know)
* I interrupt people rudely when talking.
30+ years. Am still trying to curb that bad habit and failing miserably.
*I don't bitch or gossip. I avoid human habitations or gatherings just to avoid that.
*I envy all the time but feeling jealous... not so much. I find myself brimming with jealousy when whatever it is( the success or achievement) pertains to people I genuinely dislike for ethical reasons. ( That does count as jealousy... unfortunately. )
*Talk dirty under false name... If I ever have to, I probably will do it with my own name. What use is it to do it as someone else. :/ (I might as well bookmark this page. )
* If I am playing politics... I don't know it yet. I ask myself... if I am lying to myself. As far as my waking conscious tell me... know. I need a concrete test to find out.
Maybe... I've got to ask around to know. Am afraid of what answers I might find if I asked around. :(
*About friendships and lust. Hmmm. There's a place for both. Lust in and by itself is not bad. How one deals with it makes the difference. If lust in some form did not exist... half our art, architecture, poetry, literature, philosophy would disappear.
* All the crap about romance... is not all crap.
I have seen, met people who have loved with all their hearts. They were, they are beautiful inside out. I just happen to not be one of the people capable of doing so. My doubts always rile everything I feel or do.
* 'What went wrong.' Isn't that a very 'Mills and Boon'-ish way to put it like that. I mean... if it never was meant to be forever, that means it never went wrong. It just went away when it was supposed to, fizzled out as preordained. Just the way it was supposed to, to begin with.
Doing the proper thing... is tough. Not cause doing it is tough, but cause there are always more than one ways of doing things proper. Unlike math where there is just one answer. Every time I have done something that I consider proper, I have found myself reflecting upon it and finding that there was an alternative proper thing. Again and again and again. If doing of different proper things lead to different results all of which are proper... how do I know before hand which action/result to pick?
Same with honesty. I have made a conscious effort to be honest... with myself as well as people around me. My honest thoughts have hurt people I love. My honest opinions have rubbed people the wrong way. And not unsolicited opinions.. mind you. Opinions that were sought. My honest actions have been interpreted as a variety of things. I cannot even begin to list them all. So how is honesty good? How much of honesty is good? Where is honesty good? With who is honesty good?
Jitu
An anecdote.
ReplyDeleteI am pretty anal about not lying. (There's a story behind that too. :D )
A friend and I were talking about a past instance and I said something. He said I was lying. I was furious with him for saying I was lying and even more furious cause he thought I would lie.
He was obviously surprised at the way I got so angry. He showed me proof as to how what I said was wrong.
It is then I realized... even when I was not lying... even when I was 100% honest... I was wrong. I had just not remembered the incident right. In my mind, something else had happened which was far from truth.
Seeing the proof... I felt sheepish as well as foolish. Not to mention upset with myself. (I have had a bad memory as far as I can remember. Selective bad memory actually. My mind remembers things in data and numbers. )
So... this was a lesson I learnt the hard way.
I think I am honest and believe that I always speak the truth, but my truth is not the universal truth.
So much for my so called honesty. :(
Jitu
I have visited this post many times since I came to know of it in Sept. 2012. More so in the past 20 months. This is one of the most thought-provoking posts in this blog.
ReplyDeleteIt's a checklist of everything I should not do. When I feel I am slipping, I come here and read this. The cynical tone of the poem puts some sense back into me. :)