prompt: The Eighth Sin
One more? Why not two? Mea culpa, of course.
There’s a certain nice quality about the number nine; cat with nine lives, that sorta thing, oh, and the never ending number 99.999… always a fraction away from a hundred, never forming a whole.
My eighth sin would be cowardice. Not inaction- no, sometimes inaction is an action in itself. Like the choice to let the person who stole your wallet keep it, because he has four children to feed at home. Or the choice to not pursue a grudge, and in turn remove a lock on the gate of your soul.
Or when you’re trapped in a desperate situation, and the best thing to do is to wait for the storm to pass, and THEN take action. In chess, it’s called Zugzwang, when the only viable move… is not to move. (Mr Nobody, anyone?)
No, cowardice is not doing something you KNOW IS RIGHT, and you should do, but you choose to do nothing. It’s inaction when its easy, not when its right. Taking the easy way out, for example, by walking past when you see someone faint onto the ground.
Loads of people are walking past and they aren’t helping, why do I have to do it. Someone else will help.
I also can’t stand it when people choose inaction because they don’t want to be responsible for the consequences.
When facing an important decision, some people prefer to bask in indecision, better to imagine the many possible ways life could unfold if you were God, and could grasp the innumerable possibilities in your palm. But we are not God, and when we’re too greedy with our opportunities they disappear like sand slipping through the cracks if we try to broaden our hands.
And when we are too cowardly to choose any option, we become spectators in your life, instead of taking control and living it. And its as if we don’t care about what happens to us or those around us at all. It’s almost sloth. It’s irresponsible.
Two roads diverged in the wood, CHOOSE ONE. We’ll move on from there.
My ninth sin would be apathy. But then I guess that’s almost the same thing, right?
candid shot 