Dear Pogue,

There’s a saying that says, “Who will do the hard thing? He who must” It’s a challenge in many ways to cause people to face up to responsibilities and not shirk away. To face up to things if you like and own them rather than putting them off or just plain walking away.

Well in the last couple of weeks I have found myself facing something that I could so easily of walked away from, but having that nagging thought this isn’t going away any time soon so, I’ve either got to walk along way away or deal with it. I can’t just stand by and watch because that’s continually messing with my zen. Not good! I think my conscience is a curse to me!

So I dealt with it, over a couple of days. Will there be consequences? I don’t know but when dealing with hard things one has to imagine that there will be and weigh the cost of these. So it’s a difficult calculation to make. The weight of conscience against the action required to deal with the thing at hand against the possible outcomes, which could be anyone of a number of things.

At some point in life we all face these dilemmas and have to make the decision as to what we will do. Many will not get past the weight of the action necessitated by the issue. It will be too great and they will back away. But then, the situation will remain or mutate and they could be forever troubled in their conscience when it comes to mind. Are they prepared for that?

Others will take the necessary steps to overcome, remove or address the hard thing but not have weighed the consequences thereby falling into a world of unexpected pain. And some will have taken time and done the calculation and even though the course set may involve pain at some point this will have been foreseen and factored in.

So I hope my chosen action was the correct one, for me, and that I have made my decision deliberately. There often is no single right decision because we are all different and face life in a myriad of ways. Not everything effects us in the same way. I guess what I am saying is, when the difficult decision comes make it with thought and deliberation. Do you know what must be done? Have you planned your approach? What do you consider to be the consequences and how will you address these? Then, if you chose not to act how will you live thereafter?

I will let you know how things unfold but I’m thinking it may be a while. Such is life.

Whatever, act deliberately in life’s decisions,

Yours, hoping for a better day,

Wic.