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Shopping-Cart
Virtue
This
is
number
four on
my list
of
all-time
favorite
commentaries.
According
to a
story in
the book
Hugs
for Dad
by John
William
Smith, a
father
asked
his son
after
grocery
shopping
to
return
their
cart to
the
retrieval
area.
Although
it would
have
taken
only a
minute,
the son
protested.
"C’mon,
Dad," he
said,
"there
are
carts
all over
the lot.
None of
those
people
returned
theirs.
No one
expects
them
to."
Then Mom
chimed
in. "For
heaven’s
sake,
they pay
people
to
collect
the
carts.
Returning
one more
won’t
change
the
history
of the
world.
Let’s
just
go."
Dad was
about to
surrender
when he
saw an
elderly
couple
walking
together
to
return
their
cart.
After a
moment,
he said
to his
son,
"We’re
not
responsible
for what
other
people
do, but
we are
responsible
for what
we do.
There
are two
kinds of
people:
those
who put
their
carts
away and
those
who
don’t.
We put
our
carts
away
because
that’s
the kind
of
people
we are."
This
story
isn’t
just
about
grocery
carts.
It’s
about
doing
the
right
thing in
a world
that
seems to
promote
rationalizations
and
excuses
that
demean
or
trivialize
simple
acts of
virtue.
There
are two
kinds of
people:
those
who find
the
strength
to do
what
they
ought to
and
those
who find
excuses
not to.
People
of
character
do the
right
thing
even if
no one
else
does,
not
because
they
think it
will
change
the
world,
but !
because
they
refuse
to be
changed
by the
world.
I’m not
saying
people
who
don’t
return
their
shopping
carts
are
moral
felons,
but
there is
a lot to
admire
in
people
who have
such a
strong
sense of
decency
and
responsibility
that
they put
principles
above
convenience.
This
is
Michael
Josephson
reminding
you that
character
counts. |
