Rusty's Armory

As if I were God

Posted on November 30, 2019

“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

As if I am God who decides what is evil and what is good.  That is often a very subtle part of my makeup.  A friend of mine was chiding about my piety in reaction to me belittling my accomplishments in life.  I often did what I damned well pleased in my time.  I have very little self-discipline.  But I was blessed/cursed with the bane of knowing moral perfection.

I did as I damned well pleased, but I knew to a fraction of a millimeter how far I veered off the straight and narrow. I could not justify what I did as good.  A tramp who knew stealing was wrong but since he was hungry, he took what wasn’t his … my need rose above my moral perfections.

Still does, but my need has diminished with age.

So a tacit moral platitude sprang from that. It is OK to be a thief IF you feel bad about it afterwards and admit it to someone.

It is OK to be a sot IF you feel bad about it afterwards and admit it to someone.

It is OK to be a liar IF you feel bad about it afterwards and admit it to someone.

And so it went.

Perhaps that is the value of old age.  It is safer to go back over your life when the penalty for wrongdoing is removed.  It takes on an air of modesty and becomes somewhat virtuous, and very neatly hides venality …

Good morning!