hese statues and honors allow the people that look up to them to forget that they weren't as great as they appear to be. It's all too true, because none of us our saints-- especially when surrounded by the norms of our own time where we don't see beyond the filters, or when we fall prey to our own failings.
The things such people did well-- those are what we aspire to. And each of us hopes we'll be one of the few to look beyond the norms and realize that you can't explain away human decency with "what everyone else is doing," or that if we have huge weaknesses in our chemistry or our character, we will manage to recognize and overcome them.
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Date: 2018-10-09 07:05 pm (UTC)From:It's all too true, because none of us our saints-- especially when surrounded by the norms of our own time where we don't see beyond the filters, or when we fall prey to our own failings.
The things such people did well-- those are what we aspire to. And each of us hopes we'll be one of the few to look beyond the norms and realize that you can't explain away human decency with "what everyone else is doing," or that if we have huge weaknesses in our chemistry or our character, we will manage to recognize and overcome them.