the value of yours

It is not appropriate to say that somebody is a good person or bad just by knowing what s/he has done to her/himself or to others. I don't mean that what most religions have established about the good and the bad is wrong. I still believe that the good will go to heaven and the bad will go to hell. In daily life, however, we often conclude that Mr. X, for example, is a very good person because he always gives money to the poor. We don't know what his purpose to do that is. There are some possibilities why he does that; maybe he has too much money, or maybe he wants to get helps from the poor if he needs something. He might even want to get compliments from others in his neighborhood. Who knows?

Stealing is wrong. It breaks the law. Everybody knows that. If you steal something and then you are caught, you will be in jail because you have done something bad. And maybe people around you will say that you are a bad person. Let us think in a different perspective; not about the stealing itself but about the reason why you steal. If you steal a car because your neighbor has a car and you want to be like your neighbor (to look rich), I am definitely sure that you deserve to go to jail. If you steal a car because you need to take someone bleeding because of an accident to the hospital, I don't think you will go to jail for a very long time. Yes, you will go to jail because you have taken somebody else's property without permission. But from the reason point of view, you do that for the sake of humanity. The judge will of course lighten the punishment for you.

So, to make life easier, I myself never think that what I do is good or bad. What I care more is the after effects of what I have done. For me, being alone in a small library with badly arranged collections of books is a nice thing to do. But for many people, it is stupid. And stupid means bad. It's stupid and bad because many people will think that I just want to be undisturbed, unsociable, and secluded. What I actually find out about being alone in this place is that I can exercise my brain and muscle. I can think of how I will manage the collections. I can get healthy because arranging books and shelves needs physical energy. I get the benefit from that. Then if God will decide whether I will go to heaven or hell because of my being alone in the library, I and other human beings may not interfere the decision making.

As a conclusion, when we are going to do something, think about the effect. When your voice is so very super loud when speaking in a room with some people in it, think about the effects. Will it relieve your tension or hurt your throat? Will it entertain the people inside or hurt their ears?