5 March 2011

The chances we have

Last week, my wife and I were discussing my sister's situation.  (Short version: bad.)  I was trying to think of ways to help her, when my wife said:  "It would be so much easier if we could only win the lottery."  then we both hypothesized about what we could do if only we had the money, before I broke it off.  "That kind of thinking is a trap," I said.

Many people do such things:  they think of the good they would do if only they had the means to do such good, but since they cannot do that, they do nothing.  Their vices are real, but their virtues are fictional.  We are required to do the good we can with what we have, to take the chances we have to do good, and not dream of the chances we don't.

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