Take It On The Chin

Take It On The Chin

This isn’t actually the title of this blog. The title is really “Sometimes Paying It Forward means Taking It On The Chin” but good lord that is a mouthful and just typing it makes my eyes roll into the back of my head.

But I’m a writer, that means I cut things down to the “punchiest” parts.

I hope this missive finds you well and I hope you enjoyed last Thursday’s(government name Friday) Fragment of Fiction.

I had an opportunity, today, to give someone a very bad day. To be clear I would have been in my rights to do so, no sane person would have faulted me for it. They messed up, were clearly at fault and their mistake caused me discomfort. It would have been easy to take my pound of flesh.

But did I have to?

To be clear, I’m not advocating for being a doormat, or for letting people get away with the ills they do because “it’s not a big deal to me.” Actions have consequences and sometimes the best thing you can do for a person is enforce those consequences.

And sometimes, the best you can do is be forgiving.

I thought of this person and their mistake. I thought of how terrible a day it would be for them. I thought of the very minor inconvenience it would be for me and I thought of the times I’d made the self same mistake and benefitted from the good will of another.

There are some phrases that I use to guide my life and one of them is, “be strong enough to be gentle.”

Yes, it is possible that this person will not learn from my good will and will squander the opportunity for self improvement but if I decide to write off people because they may not improve then I might as well walk into the wilderness and live alone.

So, yes, sometimes doing a good deed means taking it on the chin. You are never obligated to. No one has the right to your good will, but if you have it to spare then maybe give it to someone who doesn’t deserve it. Who knows, maybe it’ll help them turn their life around and they’ll start writing blogs about it.

Until next time my dear readers and God bless;

~S. Wallace