Sometimes It's Hard

My wife and I just watched the film Lean on Me for the first time a couple of days ago, and I found it to be an extremely moving portrayal of many people in a system who were caught in very difficult circumstances--and who had to make some very difficult decisions in order to bring about change where change most definitely was needed.  And while I wasn't completely comfortable with all the methods and decisions that were made, it was very obvious that the extreme situation--a high school that had become ultraviolent with almost no order at all--called for extreme measures.

Sometimes in our lives--rarely, but still sometimes--we may be called to make the hard decisions.  We may be put into situations in which the easy decisions will lead to ineffective, or even harmful, results.  And in those times, it's important that we keep in mind that if a hard decision is called for, we may be the persons who have to make it.  It may be unpopular and it may lead people to dislike us or be suspicious of us, but we still need to try to keep in mind that the right needs to be done, and someone has to do it.  And what are we doing to ourselves if we don't do what's right because we're afraid of what people might say or how they might react?

In the film, we watched a man who had to do some very difficult things.  He alienated others and angered them and even made enemies because he was doing what was right in the best way that he knew how.  Others might have done things differently, but he did things how he did them and he stuck to his convictions.  And in the end, which is what counts the most, he knew that no matter what the outcome he could be satisfied and content because he knew that he had done the best that he knew how, and he hadn't backed down when the pressure on him grew.

In my life, I hope that I always can feel that way--that I've done what's right no matter what, and that I haven't buckled to pressure to avoid doing the right, or even to do something wrong. . . .

The principles you live by create the world you live in;
if you change the principles you live by,
you will change your world.

Blaine Lee