Values are meaningful when they’re not just abstract but people act on them. Meaning can be defined as the product of responsible action.
My blog posts this week will be devoted to daily observations of people who felt themselves prompted to take responsible action by the situations they found themselves in.
Last Friday morning my husband and I got to the intersection leading to the main road, where we started to turn left, when out of nowhere a van hit our car. Thank God we came out of it fine, no whiplash or anything, although our car was totaled. The van went through a red light, was speeding, and after he hit us didn’t even stop.
As we were waiting at the side of the road for the tow truck and so forth, a citizen of our community came up to us and said he tracked down the driver. We figured it’s a hit-and-run and we won’t ever know who did it.
What did this man do? He happened to have been on the road driving when it happened. He saw the collision, saw that the guy didn’t stop, and immediately sped off after the driver of the van until he caught up with him ten minutes later, and then reported it to the police.
As he was telling us this, he said to us “I wasn’t going to let him get away with it.”
How many people see a hit-and-run accident and chase after the driver to get his details? I don’t think I would have done it. But he did this, and he made the value of “not letting him get away with it” into a real entity in the world.
The situation offered the possibility for fulfilling this value. This man had to see the possibility for fulfilling it, so that he could turn it from an abstract idea into something real.
A split second before the world was a place where this value was only a thought in someone’s mind. From a split second later until the end of time, the world is a place where someone somewhere, was made accountable for his actions.It happened.
The more you notice it, the more aware you will become of opportunities to actualize values where other people are prompted to responsible action and where you yourself are prompted to responsible action, thereby making your own life meaningful.