Intent

There was a meeting called relating to the news that broke over the weekend. It was explained that the Employee Assistance Program would be making counseling available. The boss was saying it was like a death in the family, which I didn’t disagree with. The person I knew is gone. He is someone I would go to when I was asked to do something that I personally thought was stupid. He would often agree that the thing was stupid and then either tell me that folks knew it was stupid and wanted it done anyway or he would tell me that he would find out if folks knew about why I thought the thing was stupid and get back to me. He was the person that I would go to when I needed to find out how I should handle a situation. He was the person I would go to when I needed to find out the history of a thing. When I read the story, I thought: “I should un-friend him.” I didn’t, but I then thought, when is the appropriate time? After the arrest? After the arraignment? After the conviction? How do you balance the good with what is the heinous? Are there two separate parts? Is there just one part with a bad section? Is the whole part bad but it occasionally does good? Can there be a true separation of thoughts that are good and thoughts that are evil? What he did was way over any acceptable line but it makes me wonder where the line is. Does the line move sometimes based on the person? He crossed the line but where he was stopped was far from where others sometimes go. Did his mind get twisted or did he just let it go to where it wished? Were the forces internal or external? Could it have been stopped or was it only ever partially controlled? “In various stages of undress.” Where is the line on that? Someone taking their shoes off. Someone taking their shirt off at a pool. Someone standing in their underwear in a doctor’s office. I think of the word intent. His intent was evil at some level so any stage of undress is a problem, even if shoes were just being removed. I think we all have our own lines based on individual circumstances or intent but somewhere there is a universal line that applies to everyone everywhere. I wonder where my line is. When you are dealing with consenting adults in the privacy of your own home, the line is a lot different.