The Torn Reflection

1770 Words8 Pages
To be torn is an every day event where we must choose between competing responsibilities, two different roads, but often two very good roads. Choosing one road over another will meet the need of one responsibility, but leave another unmet. These competing responsibilities may leave us feeling incomplete, much like people who are rent. When we choose to reflect upon this, we will come to realize we all lack wholeness and completion. Yet we continue to seek wholeness and completion, this is what binds us together. As we travel this road together, the roads that tear at us maybe small, bittersweet, or even cut us to the core. “The tearing can be small and almost undetectable” (p 155). Maslow’s hierarchy of needs may drive the primacy of one’s responsibility over the other, essentially making the choice easy. Eric Severson had to make a decision between the safety of his children over the need of hitchhikers, leaving him feeling torn between responsibilities of family and social needs, he feels some remorse for not being Christ like and helping the hitchhiker, but his family’s safety is primary. Though his decision is not wrong nor right, the majority would probably feel he made the ethically right decision, but in the end this was an easy choice and small choice to make. He may wonder if anyone had stopped to help that hitchhiker, but for many this conflict is negligible, especially for those who do not see the need of the hitchhiker as a responsibility, thus undetectable. “The tearing can be bittersweet” (p. 155). Many people proclaim to want less government and government regulation intrusion in their lives, yet when something goes wrong, such as a housing sub-prime mortgage melt down, people proclaim, “where was the government to protect us?” “Isn’t the government responsible for protecting the citizens?” However, are the executives of those companies
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