Week 3: Doing the "Right thing"

 This week I have been pondering a lot on what it means to be doing the right thing. Notice on how I refrained from using the word ethical. I don't use the word, not because I don't like ethics, quite the contrary actually. It is because I am still learning about what ethics truly are. I am using doing the "right thing" because I still find myself needing to connect the dots in my own mind when it comes to what Ethics are. I hope you can bare with me as I attempt to articulate what has been going through my mind and the thoughts and Delmas I have been pondering this week. 

First off, why do people do the wrong thing? I don't think any well informed individual every originally intends on doing what is wrong. I think that ultimately it comes down to an attitude of greediness, to where greed clouds judgment. Other sins such as lust also may come into place. Something we learn in the gospel is that we all have the light of Christ in us. The light of Christ has also been described as the "Christ Consciousness", the part of us that are gravitated towards that which is good. 

Now, with that in mind, the thing I have been pondering and stewing in my mind this week is, as we do little "wrongs" in life over and over again, it dims that light of Christ, and makes it easier to do more wrong. We care less and less that our actions are affecting others in a negative way. And by the way, the way that our positive actions affect others in unseen ways is just as true about our negative actions. 

I think that ultimately, doing the right thing, or ethics (yes, we are using that big boy word now) comes down to honesty and integrity. It comes down to doing the right thing the right way, and not doing anything that compromises those 2 things, especially in business. It comes down ultimately to a quote from Oprah Winfrey: "Integrity is doing the right thing when do one is watching" that, in my opinion, is ethics in a nutshell.