Thought of the Day 10.01.09

My wife recently checked out a book that happened to have someone’s drivers license and insurance cards stuck in it. We immediately contacted the library to tell them. Then we returned the book and the cards, making sure to notify the librarian about the situation. She seemed truly impressed with us for being so diligent.

But I wasn’t impressed with us at all. In our view, anything less would have been reprehensible. We just thought we were doing the minimum for decent citizens. Hence, praise felt a bit awkward.

Now, rationally, I know we live in a society where people often don’t satisfy such minimums. But maybe our basic problem lies in having allowed them to think that such low-grade civic obligations are optional.

People will always live within whatever range of options seem acceptable. Thus, there is a vast motivational difference between believing that an action is a very good thing and believing that the failure to do such action is a really awful thing. We simply must not confuse basics with virtues.