Morality. Kindness. Honesty.

Morality:

~is the differentiation of intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are "good" (or right) and those that are "bad" (or wrong). The philosophy of morality is ethics. A moral code is a system of morality (according to a particular philosophy, religion, culture, etc.) and a moral is any one practice or teaching within a moral code. Morality may also be specifically synonymous with "goodness" or "rightness." Immorality is the active opposition to morality (i.e. opposition to that which is good or right), while amorality is variously defined as an unawareness of, indifference toward, or disbelief in any set of moral standards or principles. An example of a moral code is the Golden Rule which states that, "One should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself.

My parents spent years saying over and over again "treat others as you would want to be treated", and I believe I spent years trying to know the difference. Are parents still saying this to their children? I pray so. According to the bullingstatistics.org website, we lose 4,400 of our young people each year to suicide due to bulling. And our 10-14 year olds are at an even higher risk for suicide than ever before. What? 10-14 year olds? These young ones are suppose to be playing outside with their friends, joining sports or hobbies and having fun. This is suppose to be a worry free time for them. What is happening here? Have we lost kindness, morals, ethics and the saying "treat others as you want to be treated"? God, I hope not. As a woman who yearns to become a mother soon, I think about how kids are treating each other often. 4,400 of OUR young people? This means that the numbers of kids who are bullied/treated poorly have to be staggering. 
Just in my every day life, I have seen morality and ethics dwindle. Maybe it is the type of business I worked in for 6+ years, but maybe it is more than that. I think we have lost ourselves in the need to succeed at ANY cost. (Run people over, lie, cheat, steal, fight, drive the bus!)  When I managed a group of  about 8, I constantly told them - always do what's right, nothing else matters as much as that. Give credit where it is due, and do not worry about where it will leave "you" in your stature. Stick up for what you believe in. Stand tall in your decisions, in your morals, and in caring for others progress and success. I did what I could to bring people up this way. And that is honestly how I felt - I felt it was my job to "bring them up", and I felt a motherly duty to do this right. Finding out that one or more of them have not taken what I taught them and grew on it, has been devastating. My eyes actually welled up with tears as I told my husband, "how could this happen? This is not how I brought him up".  My husband and I both worked for the same company for years, in the same department. We both tried and tried to run honest departments, manage honest people, and be honest, trustworthy, hardworking employees. We often stuck up for what we believed in, and took a lot of heat from it. But we wouldn't go back and change a thing. If anything, we would fight harder. Fighting for what's right is why we can sleep at night.
If we had more people caring for other successes as much as they do theirs, this society would be in a much better place. Consider that. Consider changing the way you do things at work, at home with your loved ones, how you teach your children.... because they will learn from it and use it day to day. And it may just save someones life.
This brings me to something that I have wanted to do - which is to start my random act of kindness and bucket list. I think I will start working on that now.... and I implore you to do the same. I will update you when I have my list complete as this will hold me accountable for finishing it!  

“Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something.” 
― Henry David Thoreau