Opus 2023-244: On the Street: Context Is Everything

Okay, maybe not everything, but it comes close.  I had this thought as I was out walking and I saw a bug making its way across the roadway.  I was deliberate.  I went out of my way to make sure that I did not step on that bug.  I was a visitor in his world.  It would have been rude to step on him when he was just going to dinner.

If I had seen that same bug in my kitchen or bedroom it would be stomping time.  I would not gently lift him and escort him outside.  His time on earth was over.  He had violated the rule of context.

So many things that we face can be either good or bad depending on context.  Driving 80 miles an hour is a different proposition when you are on a narrow, winding mountain road as opposed to IH94 going across North Dakota.  Putting white granules in your coffee has totally different results depending if the container it came from was sugar or salt.  Killing someone who is trying to murder your wife is different than shooting someone because their dog is pooping on your lawn.  It seems like the decision to prosecute a law breaker depends on whether they are a Democrat or a Republican.

Context matters.  So do the basic standards of right and wrong.  In a sane society the two work together for a strong culture.  In ours today they both seem to be open to interpretation.

Might I beg you to go to the sources of judging behavior and apply them on a regular basis.  For us today that would be the Bible, Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

homo unius libri