Island living: how your decisions are not independent of others

A guy I worked with as a teenage lifeguard once told me his philosophy for red lights. I was yet to earn my learner's permit, so I was all ears.

"If the person in front of me goes through the yellow or red light, then I'm going through the yellow or red light." 

Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash

Even as a green fifteen-year-old, this logic made no sense to me. If everyone else in the platoon (marrying a civil engineer affords me new roadway vocabulary) follow that same protocol, no one would ever stop. There would be a perpetual line of cars going through until a gap was created.

Your decisions are not your personal decisions.

Most of the time. You don't make decisions independent of every other person. All of your decisions affect other people. Especially if you're a Trinitarian-ish-ly baptized Christian who is given the titles Priest, Prophet and King. We're called to do our best.

Our feelings about what we want do not justify decisions that hurt others.

Yes, there is always mercy, especially when we ask for it with our open hearts.

Thank God, but let's remember that these traffic signals are there to guide us (not KILL ALL FUN IN ALL OF THE WORLD AND KEEP A MAN DOWN).

What's your yellow/red light philosophy?

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