The Trail Of Living Debris

When you run through that red light at the intersection or fail to stop at a stop sign you are doing two things. First, breaking a legal rule and secondly taking a big chance.

You may get away with it and safely pass by, but someone somewhere saw you and that prompted them to do the same thing when they find themselves in a similar situation. We see this on the interstate highways when one car passes by at a high rate of speed and then other vehicles, upon seeing this action fall into trail behind and soon there is a chain of fast moving vehicles all jockeying for what they perceive as prime position.

There are those who place used coffee cups or drink bottles on store shelves as they shop because they are too lazy to seek out a waste can and feel ( other people are paid ) to clean up their mess. They rummage through the products on the shelves completely destroying order simply because they don't want to take the time to put things back where they came from.

But these little things don't hurt anything, or do they? Every time someone does one of the petty actions there is a chance that someone else is influenced by the decision and result. The wave begins and it builds as it passes through society as a whole.

What you may be doing because you are so busy and too lazy is setting an example for all to see and follow. One person influences two and those two influence four or five more. Soon you have a pyramid of poor human ethics that permeate the very core of social living.

This is mainly because these offenses are considered minor. They are nothing to be concerned with. This is just one cup or bottle, one moment of hurry and one instance of verbal abuse. It is easy to accept because it is so small and insignificant. It won't hurt anybody and it really doesn't matter. You have dozens, hundreds of shortcuts in your memory of living experience that weren't the proper way, but they worked in the moment and have been stored away as acceptable if the given situation can be comfortably circumvented by recalling and using them.

Over time the small things begin to add up. One poor decision on the open highway turns into dozens of poor decisions and actions all layering one on top of the other until disaster strikes. Even if tragedy is averted and everyone makes it home safely the influence has done the damage. It is alright now to do that again if the situation calls for it. After all it was just a quick one time decision that worked and didn't hurt anyone or anything, yet.

Be aware of how you choose to live your life. Be aware of the living debris field you are leaving in your wake as you go through daily function. This is especially true when you are around young children who are in the years when they form mental and reasoning associations. Adults may see you do something and mirror you once, but a child may lock that associated action into the fiber of their functional thought for life.

Your decisions and the ripples they create in society help to define who you are as a person and society as a whole.