With Purity and Identity et al

I’m going to fail my personal purity test.

I’m going to fail often and sometimes fail miserably. But then most folks would agree I have brought the failure on myself.

Why? Because I am espousing a code of conduct that simply put calls for doing no harm.

Laugh, guffaw, scoff, scorn, roll eyes, shake head as so moved.

So obviously have I not met this standard in the past, so likely will I stumble in the future, you might wonder if the notion, my presenting such an ideal, is a wasted effort.

Guess that depends on how an ideal is valued. For me, the ideal is a pathway, even a journey of a sort. The existence of an ideal—and maybe especially concerning my behavior—like a lighthouse to guide me forward to a better anchorage.

Now when I betray my code of conduct, surely someone could cry “Hypocrite!” or worse. My question—or the first one—would be, so does the ideal fail because I fail? Or is the ideal valid as a touchstone?

Maybe the proposition appears so unattainable as to be meaningless. Let me suggest the striving is worthy enough. And let me offer another word, unsustainable.

True enough, I suspect, given I sit here, a deeply flawed member of my species Homo sapiens.

In the moment I am reminded of the monk Tenzin Gyatso observing, “Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.” Now that makes me laugh.

Bellow, chide, snicker, heckle, growl, stop reading as so moved.

Of course, in my mind, I can hear the complaints: You’ve got to pick a tribe. You can’t identify only with the group as a whole. Are you with us or against?

Nationality, ethnicity, gender, party, faction, team, neighborhood et al.

Well, let me ask as a starting point in the conversation—and this question the heart of the identity trap to my way of thinking—do I have to violate the principle of doing no harm to be a member of said tribe?

Cackle, roar, protest much, but go in peace until we cross paths again.