salience

You’ve been here before, where I am right now. Maybe as recent as a few minutes ago, when you ran out into the hallway. Nature calling, you answering. Doing your thing, and then you’re here, cleansing. In front of a mirror.

But the real question is, what do you see?
How do you break down your face?

Are you really looking? Yes, it helps if you take yourself seriously. Now, close your eyes. Take a deep breath. Maybe one more, if you need to be reminded you’re living. It’s nice, isn’t it? Being alive?

Now look again.

Sure, there’s your face. All of the details you don’t even notice anymore. But underneath the surface. What do you see when you look into your eyes?

Here, let me help you.

We’d all like to believe we’re moral people. You know what I mean—you see that teenager on the eleven o’clock news, that kid you swear you’ve seen somewhere before, he was walking down the street and found a fifty dollar bill. He was in a hurry, because aren’t we all? But he didn’t just pick up and stash the money, or avoid the ethical confrontation entirely and keep walking. No, he stepped on the bill with his fifteen year old foot, it was windy you see, and decided to take it to the man behind the counter of the convenience store he was stopped in front of; after all, he didn’t know who the money belonged to, and really there was probably someone who needed it more than him anyway. He only realized it was a setup by the television station when the reporter and camera man stepped out of the alleyway to praise his decision. But you, you would have done the same thing, right?

We don’t often think about integrity amongst our day to day goings on. We all have our personal rubrics, instilled in us by family or society, or you may only think of it as habit. Complete is what we are, sound. Independent. Decision making beings that function in a context. But move past yourself for a moment. Focus on the context for a few more seconds. With all of the attention companies like Enron have garnered recently, there has been a quick emphasis placed on the credibility of businesses. When you are making a necessary transaction in your life, you are not only buying a loaf of bread, you are enriching your life with the ethics of Sunbeam Foods. Marketing has realized people need to believe we all act under the best of intentions.

And you, you might still be playing with the fifty dollar idea.
Black and white. Right and wrong.
Me, I would have thrown another fifty to keep the first company.