There Is No Right Way to Do a Wrong Thing

Whether we know it or not, whether we recognize it or not, it is still, and always, happiness that we pursue. But with poor decisions or thoughtless acts or utterances, some of us sometimes seem to clutter and confuse our lives⎯so much so that others wonder how we could do it.

The mistakes of others may seem plain to us, especially after they have made them⎯plain, that is, on second sight. But our own mistakes don’t always seem so plain, at least not before the moment of making them. They may seem plain immediately after. And a constant question of those who find themselves in avoidable difficulty is this: “Why did I do it?” A constantly recurring cry is this: “I don’t know why I did it.”

Our failures are not planned. We don’t deliberately seek unhappiness. But we do sometimes set our hearts on things we shouldn’t have or seek some things we shouldn’t seek.

We do sometimes pursue the wrong things⎯or pursue the right things in the wrong way. We take chances and cut corners, and ignore the warning sense within us. We are entitled to direction, in many ways, and we do (or can) have flashes of perception that we should live for and look for and not ignore.

This quoted sentence commends itself for earnest consideration: “There is no right way to do a wrong thing”⎯and this we would well remember whenever we are tempted to cut corners or to set safe standards aside.

Sometimes we may think that we see an acceptable shortcut. Sometimes we see others who seem to have found what they want (or what we want) by traveling a wrong road. But if we think so, it is simply because we don’t know enough; because we haven’t seen the end; because we don’t know all the answers; because we don’t know what they are carrying inside themselves. We cannot be sure that others have what they seem to have. We cannot know fully the price that other men pay. We cannot know fully the peace or satisfaction (or accusation) that others have inside themselves. But no matter what anyone else has or seems to have (and no matter what we ourselves have or haven’t ), this we can count on: “There is no right way to do a wrong thing.”