#PV - Choice Is Made

By John R. Nocero

McKay posted an article over the weekend titled "Virtue isn't Virtue until It's Tested."

He notes that "Man A boasts of how seldom he checks his phone, and shakes his head about how addicted people are to their devices but it turns out Man A never feels the itch to check his phone because he doesn’t have any friends who message him....For something to be a real virtue, it has to be chosen. And a choice doesn’t exist unless there is some kind of opposition – an alternative, a temptation.

Sometimes we mistake moral rectitude for simple lack of opportunity. Everyone always imagines that in an ethically fraught scenario, they’d be the hero, the rebel, the martyr. It’s easy to hold a set of values when they require no risk, no skin in the game, no struggle against a countervailing force. And while it’s certainly better to hold and nurture worthy thoughts and intentions rather than unworthy ones, it’s also good to frame these ideals with an ample dose of humility – to acknowledge that they currently exist only as hypotheticals, and that hypotheticals cannot form the full basis of identity. Values don’t become virtues until they are tested."

Maybe it is me, but I don't want to be tested, as much as I would rather bulletproof my environment so I don't have to take the test. I love cookies but I don't have cookies in my house. Why? Because I will eat them. I reached for a bowl of ice cream last night and Kel was like, "John, I love you but this is the one thing I don't want to share with you." In my head, I was like, great. Temptation killed. I exercise first thing in the morning, because if I don't, there is a chance I might not do it.

I do not necessarily think of myself as virtuous but I would rather live without the temptation than have it tempt me. That way, the choice is already made.