One Strike Zone or Having a Moral Compass - Day 279 of 365 Days to a Better You

Whether you believe in astrology or not, I am the very embodiment of my sun sign. Being a Libra, I'm cursed with the perpetual need for balance, justice, and fairness. I mean, heck, our symbol is the scales, right?My brand of justice is not harsh or judgmental. It is, however, fair to a fault. I call it having one strike zone. Others might call it having a consistent moral compass.In the games of baseball and softball, there's something call a strike zone. It's the rule-defined area above home plate and between the knees and shoulders of each batter where a strike will be called on the batter whether he swings or not. It's the same for each, batter based on his or her height.I use a similar principle when I evaluate ideas, political positions, or moral actions. My strike zone for your words and actions is the same whether I like you or agree with you or not. My strike zone isn't expanded for people I like and contracted for people I don't. My view is that would be gross hypocrisy on my part.Experience, though tells me not every operates that way. For many people, it's hard to separate their personal feelings about a person or idea from the person or idea. Further, they tend to give those they like a massive ethical strike zone, while granting opponents a tiny or even non-existent strike zone.You know these people. Their religion has all the truth. Their political party is always right and virtuous and the opposition party wrong and evil; even when we're talking about actions that are precisely the same. The call that goes against their sports team is always wrong and the one that worked in their favor is always right.You must know that for we Libras, this is practically human malpractice. LOL. Beyond my personal distaste for the inability to be objective, in keeping with my Libra credo, it's very damaging to our society and out individual lives.This mindset allows:

1. "Our" corruption to persist, while "Their" corruption is pursued to the bitter end.
2. People to be harsh, cold, and uncaring about people not in their circle of agreement.
3. Us to miss good ideas and adopt bad ones because of WHO proposed it.
4. Division in a way that makes dialogue, compromise, and resolving big issues nearly impossible.

Sound like any society you know? All of this occurs in an environment when people see only sides and feel a need to defend their side even to the point of absurdity, while attacking the other side to the same extreme degree.My goal is not to point fingered in this post. If you're a Libra or Libra-like in this way, you're probably not contributing to this. However, if you see yourself, your social media interactions, or personal interactions in what I'm saying, I'd humbly ask you to reassess.It doesn't mean you have to lose your passion. I'm one of the most passionate people I know. I simply refuse to allow my passion to stop me from seeing the other sides in a debate, giving them their point while taking mine, and working toward harmony and solutions instead of just another partisan argument where tired old talking points are trotted out in lieu of working toward an answer.One strike zone...it's where justice, integrity, and ethical consistency hang out. If you're not quite there now, it's a very worthy aspiration.In case no one told you today, you ARE amazing!RayRayWebsite | YouTube | Facebook | Twitter | Support Us