I cannot count the number of times I have opted to mind my own business instead of spending time and money in some charitable pursuit. I can be charitable on a one-to-one basis, but I have not been an altruist for decades. I think we are immersed in a culture which focuses more and more heavily on the protection of one's own body, as the primary activity, which really does subtract a lot of merit, virtue and flavor from the society. ALthough there are other ways of conduct, they are genrally considered the options of the young, usually with independent means of support. In any case the major thrust of agreement in society is individual and material. Altruistic impulses are rarely widely agreed upon.

So Donuel's question is an important one. Which way you choose when the chips are down is the result of patterns of choice made when things ar enormal; but everyone has wellsprings of strength somewhere in them, and it is an interesting question what does or does not open the access path to them.

I think it is very important to remember the secret demonstrated by Victor Frankl, and the Dutch Ten Boom sisters, during the Holocaust. There is on center the torturer cannot reach. But it is necessary to reach it yourself.

I only hope if the moment comes when a serious challenge of that sort appears, that I am capable of right choice.


A