There is a spiritualist principle Personal Responsibility. It was given through the channelling of Emma Hardinge Britten over a hundred years ago. It refers to our need to take responsibility for our energy, feelings, thoughts and actions. I often refer to it as the ‘what you give out you get back’ principle. As a moral statement it asks us to consider how we are and interact in the world. It doesn’t tell us what our moral stance should be. There is no direction to a right or wrong action. We are expected to work that out for ourselves. Then we are expected to follow the path we have determined with love & mindfulness so as to fulfil our Spirit’s mission here on the Earth.
Taking personal responsibility for yourself can lead you into a moral maze. Is it right to consider how your actions affect others? If so, how much do you consider their needs as opposed to your needs. Is there a point at which you work out what is for the greater good? And who says what that point is? When do you go along with what others want? At what point is it easier to go with the flow or even do nothing? Even in our smallest decisions we are deciding matters of personal responsibility. Should I take that seat on the bus if there is someone standing who is infirm? Or a mother with a couple of kids? Will it offend the infirm person if I offer? Is the mum only going a few stops? What about the teenager who is many years younger than me but hasn’t budged off his seat? Should I ask him to stand up? Working this kind of stuff out can get me in many dead ends, everyone has probably got off the bus and I’m still wondering if I did the ‘right’ things. Yet the decision to stand up & offer my seat on the bus is really a very simple moral situation.
What about if someone is entering my work building to use one of the rooms without permissions? And what if more than one person is doing it? On a regular basis? And making a mess or being destructive? What if they are teenagers? Tonight I ended up in just such a dilemma. A hundred or so years ago (not that I’m really speaking from personal knowledge – I’m not that old!) those teenagers would most likely have been in work helping to support the family. Or off fighting a war of madness. Even fourty or fifty years ago those teenagers would have been working Saturday jobs to get spending money to buy the latest technology – records (I remember doing that). Modern times are very different. Teenagers tend to have all the technology going – including state of the art phones, Facebook accounts and games consoles. So why the need to enter a building that belongs to someone else? And to make a mess? I saw one of them. As he ran further into the building I called out to ask why he was there. I heard other running footsteps and comments. No one came back down the stairs to say sorry, or give an excuse or even to run out of the building.
Unsure of who & how many people there were in the building, concious that there had been an incident the afternoon before, I ran out of the building myself and locked the front door. I called the police. I stood in the doorway so that the intruders couldn’t leave. After a short while 3 teenagers appeared. Rather than being shamefaced & apologetic they were busy filming me on their mobiles. They wanted to come out so that they could run away. I wouldn’t let them. They were a bit bemused that I wouldn’t let them out. And got upset when they realised I had called the police. They ran up & down the stairs a few times. Finally it seems they decided to kick open an internal door and leg it out of the fire door. Perhaps forgetting that the building has CCTV. Or that by spitting all over the floor they had left their DNA.
Whilst I was standing outside the building someone I knew came past. Relieved I asked him to stand with me because I was a little bit shaken up. As he stood there he saw the teenagers and began asking me to let them out. He said they may have wandered in in error. He said it may not have been them who had been damaging the building. He felt they might have a reason to be in the building anyway. As I listened to his comments I realised that he thought my decision was an over-reaction. He didn’t seem to appreciate that there would be consequences from this for myself and the other tenants of the building – not least that our ability to have our visitors enter the building freely was likely to be restricted. It seemed the needs of these teenangers had a priority that my needs hadn’t. Since they were safely behind glass I have no idea if they were carrying any weapons. They couldn’t rush at me or push me. Yet what if I had opened the door?
Lost in the moral maze of the experience one thing was clear to me. A question that I asked this passer by and he choose not to answer. Would I be happy to have random strangers walk into my home at any time they pleased, pull up a chair and start messing about? Of course I wouldn’t. I suspect neither would he. Why is my place of work any different? In either case I would feel that my space had been violated. I would want to do something to make sure it didn’t happen again. My personal responsibility was to choose the action I took. I didn’t let that violation pass without comment or notice. I didn’t get a weapon and lash out – not even verbally. I called for the people who would be best placed to ensure that the consequences the teenagers had earned would be delivered. If nothing else their parents would be aware of what their sons were doing. And the teenagers might have learned a valuable lesson. Not everyone is so paralysed by the moral maze that they let things slide. Or for fear of a kick back that they sidestep their responsibilities.
It’s all to easy to turn a blind eye. To slide away from any responsibility. To set an example for younger people that lets them believe that life has few or no consequences. We all do stupid things. We all end up making mistakes. That’s not enough of a reason to ignore when someone is overstepping a boundary. When their actions have direct or indirect consequences for someone else. I have no issue with kids doing stupid things. I did myself. However, I also learned from those stupid things never to do them again. I learned because the things I did ended up having consequences and I was fortunate enough to have adults around me who made sure I suffered consequences too. I finally learned that I had to be responsible for my life, my choices, my consequences. It was a hard lesson but makes moral decisions much easier. I didn’t open the door because I felt that my decision to protect my ‘home’ and self was the best one I could make in the circumstances. My needs were at least equal to those of the teenagers. And I’m happy with that decision. I can return to my Centre and feel safe in my building because I’m sure those teenagers would think twice about returning any time soon!
Day 117 of my blogging challenge.