Consequences, What's That?

Consequences, What’s That?

John Paul Derryberry

My Dad had a bunch of "dadisms" that he would spout at me when he was trying to install some sort of life lesson. You know, the annoying kind of open-ended instruction that always left area for interpretation, and left you confused about how to proceed. My Dad was big on that, giving you advice and seeing what you would do with it. There were days when I felt my behavior and choices were a test: almost as if he was challenging me on whether I was actually listening when he doled out advice.

The odd part about all those conversations was, whether I did the right thing or the wrong thing, he always discussed with me why I did what I did. At the end of it all, it always felt like he was guiding the process and I really couldn't do too much wrong. A piece of advice he gave me a long time ago has come into focus again during the recent discourse we are facing in our culture. He said it ad nauseam when we encountered a big decision that would lead to consequences of some kind. He would tilt his head back, puff on his pipe a little and go, "you know life really is the choices we make and the consequences of those choices, good or bad."

It's excellent advice if you're looking for a place to go in your head where you have to think hard about how your choices will affect you, those around you, and even people you don't know. But, on the other hand, it's not such great advice if you just want someone to tell you what to do, an act my Dad avoided often. Yet that is where a lot of people are contorting themselves right now; to not face the consequences of their choices. A mob violently storms our nation's capital, and some whitewash it away as "political discourse".

Yet, if you burned stores in Minneapolis as a cry for racial justice, you were a thug; you should be locked away for life. Both groups acted similarly; yet one deserves a consequence, but the other does not. It goes both ways when this discussion comes up. The mental gymnastics people are doing to avoid consequences, to stick to their moral compass, or walk their faith would be the most demanding routine ever. Consequences have become something that someone else should feel, and something people who agree with me shouldn't have to feel.

If your presidential candidate tore up documents, no big deal; but if another candidate had a suspect email account, they should be thrown in jail. The correct response should be that they both should face the consequences of their choices whether their moral compass is that the president has the right to tear up legal documents or that high-level government information should be handled responsibly and carefully. Lack of consequences, good or bad, leads us to a horrible place. It's not freedom; it's not liberty; it's chaos. And no one can function in chaos for long. Maybe my Dad was on to something. Life isn't about listening to someone on high tell you what to do, but to think for yourself about what's right or wrong, and how you apply those standards to people you disagree with. More importantly, use those same standards for people you align with. You might find out you're following the wrong people, which has disastrous outcomes.