The intention of a letter

Another beautiful morning here on the mountain, and not a cloud is visible from the north-facing window of dorm room. Large birds hover about the trees nearby, and cast long shadows when they fly in front of the sun. A minor breath of wind stirs the trees and ground shrubs here and there, but otherwise the outside world looks quite still. Looks can deceive, no doubt, but this is only a most general description :).

I encountered a line this morning by Mark Twain. It read, "Good judgment comes from experience; experience comes from bad judgment." It's just the sort of thing you'd expect from a Mark Twain quote, with its dash of humor, irony, and almost circular rendering. Yet it's the sort of humor to which I am hopelessly weak, and I can't help but chuckle no matter how many times I read it. I wonder why that is...

Perhaps it is because the line rings true to me. After all, I have gained many an experience as a result of exercising bad judgment; it's as true today as it was years ago. For example, recently I wrote a letter to someone with which I was not particularly familiar. In all fairness, "particularly familiar" is perhaps too familiar a definition for this circumstance. Essentially it was a thank-you note for a minor but personally very important service this person rendered on me without their knowing. Strange yeah? There are some folks whose personalities have a contagious quality, and they wear off on you without either party the wiser as to how it happened. Without any intention, someone can very positively affect your life. That's what happened here I think.

But what is one to do when that person is not especially familiar? Is it wrong to thank them? I do not know, but if it is, then I have done a wrong, and perhaps that bad judgment will yield some new experience that may, as Mr. Clemens mentioned above, lead to better judgment in the future.

Then again, perhaps the decision, strange as it may seem in our modern world, is in fact right. I have lived my values, and thanked a person for a kindness they almost certainly were not aware of rendering. It was simple, true, and from the heart, and that I think is very hard to do sometimes in our world as it is. Our society often encourages us to manipulate others; to lie, cheat, and steal when circumstances are favorable so as to get ahead. Of course society also teaches that all these things are evil, but it is my experience that many (myself included) have a harder time denoucing such actions when circumstances are sufficiently altered so as to render the morality of the situation quite unclear. I don't know the answer.

It is good to live one's values. Perhaps it is good for others as well. I do not know what will happen as a result of the letter, but the truth is the result does not matter. Only the intention carries weight, just as seems true in the practice of reiki healing. When a thing is intended for the highest good of a person, much good may come of it.

Happy Mother's Day :)