Tuesday, September 8, 2015

The Right Thing


At the heart of much speculative fiction (and fiction in general) is a question. What if? On Tuesdays I like to throw one out there and see what you make of it. Do with it as you please. If a for-instance is not specified, feel free to interpret that instance as you wish. And if you find this becomes a novel-length answer, I'd appreciate a thank you in the acknowledgements ;)

What if the only way to do the "right thing" completely blew your life to smithereens (figuratively speaking)?

(Yes, I'm being deliberately vague. What "right thing" and "blowing up your life" mean are open to your interpretation.)

15 comments:

  1. I think I would still do the right thing, no matter what the cost.

    betty

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  2. I couldn't even imagine a case where doing the right thing would blow your life to smitherines. I'd like to think I'd still do the right thing, because I would feel much worse, dealing with the guilt, from doing the wrong thing.

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    1. What prompted the question was seeing the documentary Citizenfour. I didn't want to get into a debate over whether or not he did the right thing, but it sure did blow his life to smithereens...

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  3. It would be a hard choice, but I'd always chose to do the right thing.

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  4. I'm not sure. I'd like to think I would do the right thing, but maybe I wouldn't. It might be too hard to do "right" and maybe even the wrong thing wouldn't be so bad.

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  5. I don't know. I would like to do the right thing but if it ended up making my life hell, I don't think I would....

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    1. I don't think most of us would. It's a hard choice.

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  6. I'd like to think I would do the right thing. But I wonder how completely my life would be blown to smithereens. This might be one of those cases where I would have to have more information before I reacted.

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    1. That's true. Is it worth it? That's something we all must decide on our own.

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  7. I have been faced with this, at least in my mind, and stuck it through to do the right thing. I ended up feeling very alone but I could hold my head up high. I would not go along with the kids and I reported what was happening. The one kid who was being bullied, was angry with me and the others then set their sights on me but I knew it was the right thing to do.

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  8. I'd always do the right thing unless it jeopardized my loved ones. Then their best interests would be more important.

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  9. I would hope that I would do the right thing. I've gotten in trouble for it on jobs and in a multilevel marketing business (don't ask -- sigh). Nothing that blew my life to smithereens, but it definitely made my life unpleasant. It's hard to be outspoken and shy at the same time!

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    1. Outspoken and shy? That's an interesting combination.

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I appreciate your comments.

I respond to comments* via email, unless your profile email is not enabled. Then, I'll reply in the comment thread. Eventually. Probably.

*Exception: I do not respond to "what if?" comments, but I do read them all. Those questions are open to your interpretation, and I don't wish to limit your imagination by what I thought the question was supposed to be.