I wonder if the Universe has a personality; an identity with values I can understand—like respect, integrity, discernment, encouragement….

I am a big fan of the concept of “Do The Right Thing.”

One area I see this promoted is envrionmentalism. Those folks ask me to change my behaviors in order to save our planet. Their various pleas include:

• Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.
• Develop alternative energy.
• Turn the lights off when you’re not in the room.

On this blog site, I do not advocate, nor do I ridicule these ideas. This may sound preachy, but I think these themes are really a subset of a greater philosophy like: Live Wisely, or Use Your Common Sense, or Do the Right Thing.

I recently read a compelling rendition of this core value from a company that teaches its employees to:

Always Do the Right Thing. But please don’t restrict “Do the Right Thing” to only you, or to only the company. As an employee, when you do the Right Thing, include yourself, your coworkers, the company, the customer, the vendor… When you act under this set of ideas, the results of your actions to “Do the Right Thing” will respect, honor and bring abundance to both you and the company.

The business leaders of that company believe if all employees follow this code the company will achieve its greatest success.

Is this nirvana or just a load of hooey?

Consider what would happen if every day you did just one Good Thing. Just one. No pressure to live a perfect life, just simply do one Good Thing…

…and then what if you followed that up with a repeat performance the next day?

This concept was popularized recently in the movie Pay It Forward (based on a book by Catharine Hyde). Under the Pay It Forward concept, when each of us performs three good deeds in repayment of a good deed done to us, our society becomes a better place to live.

An older name for this concept is Generalized Reciprocity. Ben Franklin described it in a letter where he said: “I do not pretend to give such a sum; I only lend it to you. When you meet with another honest man in similar distress, you must pay me by lending this sum to him; enjoining him to do the same….”

So when I hear, “Turn off the light, reduce-reuse-recycle, and develop alternative energy,” I say, sure, go ahead. That’s a great start. But don’t stop there. These mantras are smaller pieces of grander ideologies like Generalized Reciprocity, the more colloquial Do The Right Thing, or as I prefer – Simply Live Wisely.

With Warm Regards,
David Wine