The Price of Indulgence

From a young age most of us are taught right from wrong, and when we choose to do something that is considered wrong or bad, then we are punished. The hope is that those consequences leave a lasting negative connection with the undesirable behavior. This could either build moral standards in the child, which could very well last them into adulthood, or it could just leave the child obeying their parents in order to avoid the punishments. The problem is that at one point or another most people move out of their parents' house and begin to live on their own, where they have the ability to live and do as they please. There is the fear of what is socially acceptable that will hold the people who want to indulge in their less desirable urges from taking action, but what if there was a way to do whatever you want to and never have to deal with the consequences?

In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a novel by Robert Lewis Stevenson, Dr. Jekyll explores the question of whether one can fully indulge in their most unacceptable and primal desires while remaining unaffected. He creates a potion which separates him into two separate men, Dr. Jekyll who is inherently good, and Mr. Hyde who is inherently evil. It is revealed that while Dr. Jekyll goes about society as a morally upstanding fellow, Mr. Hyde lurks about at night committing sins. Then, when Hyde transforms back into Jekyll it was as if he were a totally different man, unburdened by his immoral half and its misdeeds. This seems to work for a period of time, but in the end the potion catches up to him and ultimately leads to his demise when he can no longer control his transformations between the two men. He dies because the evil he was allowing himself to indulge in finally won out and the good could not stand up against it.

Through criminals in society today it can be seen that taking part in unsavory activities always catches up with you. People commit crimes and give way to their wants all the time, and sometimes they are punished through the judicial system. That is not the rule though, many people commit crimes and are never convicted, but that does not mean they do not face other consequences. Oftentimes their families will fall apart, their spouse will leave them, their children will hate them, etc. Sometimes they can live life being the only one who knows they committed a crime, but that will weigh on their minds and plague them with guilt so extreme that it can lead to depression and suicide.

In my opinion no one can escape punishment for their actions; people are born sinful and have to answer for their sins in one way or another. As a Christian I believe that if you repent of your sins and ask Jesus to absolve you of your debt for them, then he will, but if not then the ultimate consequence a person faces is Hell. Although Christians have received grace and therefore will never face Hell, they still have to deal with the effects of their sins on Earth. That being said, if a person chooses to indulge in their sinful nature, then they will always have to pay for it in some manner.

 

Beyond All Tests

Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend." Friendship is an odd thing, most of the time you do not meet a person and think, one day they will be my best friend. Generally friendship forms without us really noticing its growth, and can begin in even the most unlikely of circumstances. Friendships are a privilege; to be able to share your happiness, burdens, beliefs, and just yourself with another is one of the greatest blessings that is granted to us in this world. In life I have come to find, through my own personal experience and those of others, that deep human connections go beyond the tests of the physical world.

The novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini follows the lives of friends Mariam and Laila. The two started out as enemies, battling for a place in their shared home, but slowly grew together as the joined forces to merely survive life with their authoritarian husband. They laughed together, wept together, endured together, and ultimately escaped their life of oppression together, but not without price. Mariam not only took the initial action that brought about their freedom, but ultimately bought Laila's freedom in life with her own. Mariam murdered their husband to save her best friend's life, and died so that she might be free. That, however, does not mean that their connection ended when her life did. Even after death Laila sees Mariam in the daily life around her, like the way her daughter faithfully performs the prayers that Mariam once taught her. Mariam's sacrifice of love permeates Laila's entire life; every moment of happiness and contentment is tied to Laila's love and gratefulness for her best friend, whose influence has never left her, even in death.

I have experienced something similar in my own life, though my friend did not die, she did move away which, at the time, I thought was the worst thing that could possibly happen. I have found, however, that this trial of being in very separate physical locations has strengthened our friendship more than anything else ever has. Now that she is not around me daily I miss her greatly, but I am much more appreciative of who she is as a person and of our friendship. I am blessed enough to still be able to keep in contact with her through technology, but I still feel her presence with me in daily life. I am reminded of her by little things, and can feel the influence of the things she has taught me in my day-to-day decisions. I feel her love even though she is not physically close to me, and that is the beauty of deep human connections.

In my opinion people need to not take their relationships for granted. We have loved ones in our lives and often do not think twice about what a blessing they are to us. Everyone should evaluate the connections they have with people and realize how valuable they are to our lives because they might not always be close to them in the same way as they are now. Thankfully we carry others with us through our emotions, beliefs, and memories, so even when they are gone, they really aren't.

Ignorance is Bliss... Or is it?

Rebecca West once said, “I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat.” All over the world women are treated poorly and oppressed, but thank God that in the United States feminism is a very real and active fight. Of course, there are some people lagging behind who believe women have specific and exclusive roles, such as being a wife and mother, rather than a choice in how to lead their own lives. I am proud to say that there is outrage when we hear about the injustices that women incur, and that it is in the forefront, rather than played down or swept under the rug by a society that does not want to deal with it. I do believe that a great many women do not realize the extent of their freedoms or the lack of freedom that women around the world live with in their daily lives.

Women specifically in the Middle East are met with an immense amount of oppression. The novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini, follows the lives of two women, Mariam and Laila, and depicts the trials that they face daily. The ladies are forced to live and abide by their husband's will, or face the consequences. They are not able to go to the market without the escort of their husband, or a burqa which is not only uncomfortable and inconvenient, but a hazard to their health. They are forced to endure the routine rape that their husband inficts upon them, and they must do all these things without protest. When they attempt to run away and are caught they are tortured almost to the point of death by their husband, not that anything would be done if he saw that to be a fit punishment for them.

This story may be fictional, but it is based off of the sufferings that so many women have met over the years, and continue to face today. There are women who are forced into arranged marriages in which they are pledged to unquestionable submission to their husbands, where they are literally made to be possessions. Married off far to young and left for dead after their husband, who is unspeakably older, has had his way with them. Acid  and boiling water are thrown in the faces of women and children who seek education, or do not fit the prescribed norms. The name Malala Yousafzai comes to mind, a young girl who spoke against the Taliban's forbiddance of girls going to school. Her consequence was being shot in the head, but she miraculously lives to tell the story as a spokesperson for her cause.

Yes, in the United States there is still some societal issues that remain intact when it comes to women's issues. However, there is an overall freedom that women retain in our country that is an undeniable luxury, not that it should be. On that note it is appalling to me how easily we turn a blind eye to the chronic struggles that women in other countries must endure. There is so much that we can do to not only help them, but learn from them, and yet we chose not to. We should be looking to them to see how blessed we are as a people to live in a country where we feel at least some semblance of safety, but we choose not to because that would be unpleasant. There are basic human rights that everyone is entitled to, and it cannot be ignored when masses of people are being robbed of them. We cannot turn a blind eye to these struggles because it could just as easily have been us in that situation.