But, down that path may be an end to our most cherished values and their application to choice in life – and end to our sense of responsibility for the choices we make – what remains is a frightening form of self-created dogma (a strange sense of inherent personal righteousness). Down that path one may get terribly lost. One can find one’s self doing things like opposing violence by being more violent still, fighting injustice as one has experienced it by being yet more unjust to others, protecting one’s own corner of the world from the evils of oppression by becoming an oppressor and the source of evil for others. There is, perhaps, no greater horror than to find one has somehow become what one most abhorred.

It does not take much looking around – close to home and far away – to see how far from getting “right” right one can get if one allow one’s self to be overcome by certain forms of righteousness. This is a path to be feared and avoided to be sure. But, how do we retain the personal strength and courage needed to find better (if imperfect) paths to getting “right” right?

Doing right, we are often told, is doing unto others as we would have them do unto us. Not a bad starting principle. But, perhaps we should also consider doing unto others what they would themselves find most helpful. Perhaps “right” is shaped by an openness and willingness to understand both self and other.

That brings up the notion of the importance of seeking “Plan C” in the quest to get “right” right in personal, civic, and professional life. Whether as an individual or a group, we often begin an interaction with others with our own sense of what is the right thing to do… let’s call that “Plan A.” If the other(s) have a different sense of the right thing to do, there is then a “Plan B”.

Plan A and Plan B are both plans for doing the right thing. They are also often fully formed prior to any interaction between self and other – prior to the start of any possible listening or learning can begin. As a result, we can end up playing a hollow game of competing plans full of pronouncements and assertions but not with movement forward. Sadly, too often that is where the competition ends – little ventured and less gained.