Choices, choices

After going for a job interview today, I stopped on the way home at a big box store to get some lightbulbs; and went through the self-service checkout. It was ten bucks. I paid with a fifty. The machine dispensed one hundred and forty -- not forty. I pointed this out to the attendant who appreciated my honesty.

I say this not to boast but to point out that despite what some out there may think of me -- and you know who you are -- I have always tried to be an ethical person. I'm not perfect, but I do know right from wrong.

I could have pulled the plug on my father when he went into a coma a couple of months ago; but I concluded that's not what he would have wanted and for what it was worth it wasn't his time yet. I have been offered drugs numerous times but have always refused. I have also faced temptation in many other ways but have found a way to resist, defying what Oscar Wilde once said about temptation.

And as a general rule, I at least attempt to treat people with respect because you never know when you might need their help some day. I can be brash at times and even pushy, but being stubborn does not change the fact I should try to make the world a better place -- even if it's just by my thoughts and words for now.

The other day, someone I lost touch with for a number of years wrote me and asked me if I was still the gentleman she remembered. I can't recall the last time someone said that about me and it was truly appreciated. All I can say is, I hope that I still am a gentleman and will be for the rest of my life, with the grace of God.

I could have used that extra hundred bucks. But as Robert Fulgum says, we should put things back where we found them. I may be entitled to my entitlements, but not to those belonging to others. Hint to governments: Just try that for a month.

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