Wisdom and Doing the Right Thing

Ive spent the first half of my life struggling to understand these 2 massive concepts

. Wisdom has a dictionary definition, relatively easily understood, while Wikipedia offers a compilation of many views of what constitutes The Right Thing. I have met many whom I like but the number of those I like and that I also respect is very small. In fact there are more people that I respect and dont like than those that I both like and respect. I have a friend I like but I find it difficult to respect him. He is engaging and generous and intelligent, but I dont consider him Wise. I believe this is because his moral compass is skewed. It was from him I first heard the expression Keep your Friends close and your enemies even closer. One of my own many weaknesses is a tendency toward Literalness and it was a while before I understood what the expression meant and more importantly what my friend meant. My friend was married and doted on his 2 daughters and having met them I understand perfectly why he was devoted to them. He was less devoted to his wife. I dont understand why he persistently and openly cheated on his wife. He considers himself a Good Catholic. Almost from the day I met him he exposed me to his cheating. His cheating was of such long standing that it had become second nature and he found it strange that I found the cheating aspect of his personality and nature to be abhorrent and strange. He perceived no incongruity. It was when I challenged him regarding the duplicity of his Public and Private personas that I was first exposed to his Machiavellian interpretation of the term Friend. His cheating negatively affected his behaviour and performance at work. At the time we both had similar roles on a multi-million Dollar project. His indiscretions had a deleterious impact on our Firms relationship with our client. Our Boss questioned me regarding my friends behaviour and I assume my responses were a factor in his firing. I was relatively indifferent to my Boss, on a personal level, but I respected him professionally. I informed him of my friendship with the subject and told him I would not Rat on my friend but that I would honestly answer any work-related question provided I could do so with either a Yes or a No. He was a wise man and accepted my conditions and only asked me a handful of questions. My friend was aware of my Interview with our Boss; but to what extent I remain unsure. My friend was upset with me in this regard, when next we spoke and told me he expected his friends to cover for him. I was open and told him exactly what I was asked and how I had responded. Circumstances resulted in me moving far away from my friend. His marriage subsequently crumbled, but he remarried and added another daughter to his existing brood. We remain in contact and I still like him. I wonder if he is any Wiser.

Wisdom and Doing the Right Thing

By: Max Modine

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