The Moral Currency Exchange

Many years ago, at the multi level parking lot, adjacent to the offices where I worked next to other commercial businesses nearby, my heart  momentarily stopped as I approached my truck.  The left rear fender had a huge dent. Crumpled, paint-scraped metal where it used to be a curvy unblemished and smooth fender.

A business card was tucked beneath the left windshield wiper.  It had the name and phone number of the manager of the Chick-Fil-A Restaurant, at the adjacent mall. It had a note.  The writer asked me to call his number, admitting responsibility and apologizing for what happened.  He had already called his insurance company.  

His insurance even paid for a loaner car while my truck was in the shop.  Twice, during the week, he called me to make sure everything was being taken care of, and that he had been following up with the insurance company on my behalf.  

Now, that was one moral currency that never devalues, nor is it affected by the passage of time.

Fast forward to over twenty years later, just two weeks ago. Pulling into a parking space outside the fitness center,  I misjudged how close my truck's nose was to the small car's left side that was parked at the adjacent space.  I dented the left fender, with little damage to mine.

Without hesitation, not even for a second,  I scribbled my name and phone number on a piece of paper and tucked it under the car's wiper and took some photos.  I went to do  my swim and when I got back the other car was still there.  After waiting for a bit, I called my insurance company to report the accident, provided them the details of how it happened and photos of the car's license plate and the damage.

I asked the claims person about what if the driver does not call me, what should I do.  She said not to worry.  They will run the license plate and they will contact the car's insurance company on record.  I have not yet heard from the other driver but I feel better that I did the right and proper thing. 

The title of this musing alludes to something that people had already recognized as one of humanity's ideal principles dating back from as early as humans had written about the story of life, for centuries.

"There is a concept in Judaism called in Hebrew midah k'neged midah, which is often translated as "measure for measure".

As we all know, this philosophy not only has had many iterations in the Biblical texts but  other writings and practices from different faiths preach the same theme.  

The principle of treating others as one one would want to be treated by them - ethics of reciprocity - is, of course, more popularly known as The Golden Rule.

What we should keep in mind, however, is that this  really refers to how one would treat another who would do the same even before any actual actions ever took place.  There is that one difference that separates it from the phrase "tit-for-tat", or even that of "measure for measure", because the latter two call for  reciprocity of actual deeds or exchange of goods.  

The so called "ethicization" of human behavior had long been explained philosophically as well as spiritually or religiously, for that matter, although it is oftentimes misunderstood or misapplied.  We are more familiar with the word karma.  It is mainly known to have origins in the Hindu faith (the word itself) but it is premised in Buddhism and other ancient religions as well.

Karma from its original meaning was never just about bad things happening to those who did bad things.  It was rather about consequences, good or bad, based on the individual's actions.  In fact, there were specific words to describe just that. Dharma is good karma that leads to meritorious rewards; adharma leads to both spiritual and real demerit and sin.

To just say that for every action there is consequence for the doer is, of course, much too simple as to not have the proper ethical premise. It is more profound than just accounting for pure cause and effect.  Now we get into intent and purpose (reference to my previous musing, "For All Intents ..") that have to be weighed in over actions and consequences.

Now we must grapple with unintended outcome where the doer did not mean for what happened to another when there was no intent of the kind to cause harm or damage.  Often someone may mean well when the result of his or her action proved harmful.  That is what was meant about the "ethicization" of this particular philosophical theory.

In other words, one's intent, attitude, and desire must be evaluated.  

That is well and good from the views and perspectives of the human experience.  In other words, where people are actually made aware of the causes and consequences, even provided with ample evidence of intent, and witnessing or even promoting the application of consequences, hence the premise is evaluated.  In human terms, of course.

The question we ask ourselves is this:  How is the accounting done when no one else is looking? {Reminds us of a quirky funny question often asked in jest: If a tree falls in a forest and there's no one around, does it still make a sound?}. For lack of a better way to concisely define it, I came up with the, "Moral Currency Exchange", or MCE, as some kind of cosmic balance sheet.  This is an effort to include the non-believers who do not rely on any kind of spiritual belief system for the proper accounting of deeds and/or misdeeds.

You, the reader, and I can look at our real personal experiences to evaluate the validity of MCE, if at all.  Go ahead and think of just a few instances where you are convinced that fortuitous events happened to you and the many ways by which you can ascribe a few little things you did to or for others out of unselfish motives on your part.

Now, I can't know your own personal experiences and since I do know mine, but without trying to scale the morality ladder, just to be seen or hailed for it, I simply must say that  how or why MCE works is a personal matter. I believe too that it increases in value almost exponentially from what little act it was based on initially.  But we will find that there is ample evidence of it in our own personal experiences.

Let me digress for just a bit.  It will be about lost wallets. Not including wallets lost to pick pockets or simple thievery, many studies were done about lost wallets.  Some of the studies involved controlled conditions but mostly about collecting statistical data.  Wallets containing no money were less likely returned.  The most surprising part was that wallets with the most cash were returned at higher rates than those with less.  

There was no common thread among those who returned them.  Young, old, even children, people of authority, ordinary lower income people, etc. It would seem that more people return lost wallets with the most cash in them because they felt that people who lost the most would be hurt more.  Not a very scientific conclusion except perhaps for the universal wishful thoughts that indeed most people have a way of interpreting the Golden Rule in their own independent ways without really thinking about it.

Is there a ledger somewhere in this universe of ours that records even the littlest things we do?  Good or bad?  Does someone who took the trouble to go back to a large grocery store to pay for a $2.00 item that was missed by the cashier at checkout get some ethereal merit of some sort?  Little things we do that cost so little, do they mean much in this ledger? Giving the delivery person a bottle of water on a hot summer day, tipping the workers generously for work they do in the backyard or in the attic; going out of one's way to help a stranger; helping a neighbor in need of compassion, just little things offered to help or alleviate grieving hearts, etc.

Is it really true that over time the things we do - how little or how huge - accumulate for some later accounting? 

I will end with the opening verses in a  poem written by Alice Cary ( Born April 26, 1820 - died Feb. 12, 1871), "Nobility" :

True worth is in being, not seeming, -

In doing, each day that goes by,

Some little good - not on dreaming

Of great things to do by and by,

For whatever men say in their blindness,

And spite of the fancies of youth

There's nothing so kingly as kindness,

And nothing so royal as truth.

A related musing, "For Kindness Begins Where Necessity Ends" is worth a quick read at:

https://abreloth.blogspot.com/2022/02/for-kindness-begins-where-necessity-ends.html