...

I was reflecting on someone I know who is charismatic to a fault: always a positive force, and a hilarious one at that. But, his harmatia is this: he suffers from a variety of addictions, consuming a cocktail of drugs day-after-day. Then, I began to think the following thought: "these are not my decisions, they are his. Instead of judging him for making different decisions than mine, maybe I should meet him where he is."

This thought was profoundly sobering. After all, if somebody chose to shop at Chevron instead of Main Street Market, their decision would differ from mine, but is that a grounds for condescension? Well, obviously reality is thornier than this, when we begin to consider genuine moral issues, but sometimes I wonder when my moralizing is needless or warranted.

Immediately after, this thouught was followed by an internal mandate: "You need to internalize this." But then, I began to wonder, what does that look like? Not in a rhetorical way, but objectively - how could I test whether or not I have internalized a precept, and how could I ensure the process goes without a hitch? After all, it's not like building a birdhouse, where there is a clear pathway to success, and where the results can be immediately recognized as either finished or unfinished with the slightest examination.

This is the tricky thing about virtue: it is never complete. As I have said for a while: "perfection is a perpetual process;" in other words, it is not a destination, man, it's a journey. Now I feel like a hippie... but in some respects, it's true! The caveat is, there are all sorts of destinations throughout the journey, but none of them are the end-all-be-all: helping your neighbor, fasting, etc.; these are all *destinations* in some sense, but they are more like layover terminals, as Eric Weinstein would say. Truth, beauty, justice, etc.; these are all gradually evolving concepts with finite but expanding realizations. All we can ask for is continual improvement, day by day, on a macroscale; for every step backwards, we must take two steps forward.