The Right Thing (A Meditation)

It's best if no one finds out.

When people see someone doing the right thing, they shower the doer with praise and accolades and deferential honor.

All of that is good, and people doing the right thing deserve the recognition.

But, like love unrequited, the right thing done anonymously, done "just because," has more power, keeps the focus on the love rather than the person. When the act is all there is, it becomes possible that anyone did it.

That mystery can be a game changer.

And it runs contrary to the American belief in the individual, the self, and the right to take credit for things done well, done ethically, done because they are necessary.

Not taking credit undoes the story, flaunts the need for recognition and attention.

It can become a spiritual path, work done for something other than this world.

I believe that every act of selfless kindness adds a brick to an edifice in a spiritual realm and that every brick then becomes timeless.

Simply put, you only get to keep what you selflessly give away.

If one believes in God or some creative force behind the workings of the universe, then such endeavors can be between the doer and the deity and no one else.

The most invisible and anonymous of people may be giants in this spiritual sense.

That homeless guy in a blanket that I almost ran over this morning, for example, might be the king of generosity.

I am grateful he had the right of way.