Tough Choices

If you do not know what an incident commander (IC) is, here is a brief rundown:

In the case of an emergency response, the default guideline is to have one person in charge of all decision making.  Often times that person is the first responder to the scene until someone more qualified arrives and takes over the duties if they see fit to do so.  Where everyone goes, what everyone does, what resources are allocated where, which victims die, and which stay alive are just a few of the stressful decisions the IC has to make over that unknown amount of time.

The type of emergencies the IC runs are anything from fleeing suspect-at-large, to events such as 9/11.

I had the privilege to attend a class that trains individuals to be prepared and handle the role of being an IC appropriately.  I was more than likely the LEAST experienced person in the class as the Department of Homeland Security typically requires prerequisite classes to even enroll in this one.  Additionally, most of those attending have job titles that require them to be an IC on a regular basis.  They all had a wealth of knowledge and experience and were quite funny to boot.

I will save the details of this class, I will just say that I learned quite a bit and one of the very few selected to be one of the scenario IC's.  I had to make decisions on situations where biological weapons were released into highly populated areas while simultaneously dealing with bomb threats and barricaded suspects.  All that to say, I found what it is to make tough decision in high pressure situations as the scenario was in real time and the people I was dealing with were real people.

It gave light as to some of the decisions I've had to and continue to have to make in my personal life that I have always thought to be tough.  They remain tough, but do seem kind of small picture in the grand scheme of things now.

I found this though:

To make the tough decisions in the amount of time I had to make them during these scenarios, I had to fall back on instinct and the man I have built myself to be up to this point in my life.  My character and the recent information learned in the class helped me in that decision making process.  Additionally, a new man was being formed as I made every one of those decisions.  It's an old lesson learned in a new and hard-hitting way.  The emphasis we put on building our character throughout every decision we make ultimately is our legacy because that character is going to be what we fall back on in high pressure situations; and high pressure situations are going to be where people remember us.

I have a lot of building left to do. 

Happiness, Freedom, Tolerance: Discuss. I did!

I think too many words have lost their meaning.  I shall try to reel back in three of them.

Happiness

I think happiness has taken on a purely emotional form in present day society (at least the society I'm surrounded by).  It appears to be the end pursuit for nearly any person and everything else seems to be a means to it.  Ultimately it seems that it is any state in which that person does not wish for anything to be different.  Typically, they won't be consciously aware of this, they simply are in that moment and content.

I do feel this applies, but isn't really sufficient...or even necessary for that matter.  Some of the earliest philosophers--and communities as a whole, for that matter--understood happiness thusly:

Happiness (Greek: eudaimonia) was understood as a life of virtue, and the successful person was one who knew how to live life well according to what we are by nature due to the creative design of God...So understood, happiness involves suffering, endurance, and patience because of these are important means to becoming a good person who lives the good life.  (J.P. Moreland)

I tend to agree that this is what happiness SHOULD be.  I do find myself having a hard time uprooting the common understanding of what happiness is now though.  My instincts tell me that I should limit happiness to just an emotion and that if I want anything more than an emotion, then happiness isn't exactly the word I'd be looking for.  I don't think agree with that though.

I find it a hard pill to swallow that happiness would be so self-centered, so inward pointing.  It seems to be a much grander word, and such a word would seemingly want to start inside and point outward...not the other way around.

Happiness is elusive, but it is worth taking the journey to find out what it is.  I shall continue journeying.


Freedom

This will be short.  Too many people think freedom is ability to do whatever you desire.  I believe that is wrong.  I believe freedom is the ability to do whatever you feel you SHOULD do.  WHAT you feel you should do is another story.  However, for the time being.  Freedom is not letting your every whim run rampant on the world.  That is chaos and will ultimately lead to lack of "freedom".  If you feel you SHOULD pray, freedom is being able to do that whenever you want.  If you feel you SHOULD speak up for or against something, freedom is being able to do so.  Etc.


Tolerance

Moreland put it best:

Traditionally, tolerance of other viewpoints meant that even though I think those viewpoints are dead wrong and will argue against them fervently, nevertheless, I will defend your right to argue your own case.  Just as importantly, I will treat you with respect as an image bearer of God, even though your views are abhorrent to me.

You can hear his fuse running low with society's view on tolerance; I love it.


Too many people have come to think that tolerance is being able to do whatever you want and other people having to accept it and be okay with it and to believe you are right.  No.  I won't treat you any differently, but I do not have to believe what you do is right.  I would be a coward if I gave in to every single person's opinion on what is right and I would lose all sense of identity.  I would simply be changing what is right minute by minute and ultimately you would have to do the same.  Unfortunately that really just leads to no one thinking anything is right since everyone would be waiting on everyone else to see what is right.  It's simply an irrational point of view that holds absolutely no solid foundation whatsoever.

You're gay?  I'm 100% okay with that and I will love you no different than anyone else who isn't gay.  I don't agree that it is morally correct though.  You think we all evolved from a gooey soup that itself popped out of thin air (thin air that couldn't have existed already anyway)?  Fine!  You're allowed to back that view until the day you die and I will fight for your right to do so right along side of you, but I disagree with you and think it's an incredibly weak stance :)  You get the point.  I will not form a full framework of my believes. 


I didn't end up really supporting different definitions of any of these words.  I simply recorded thoughts on them.  Oh well.  If you read this far, you obviously are bored or somehow I have done something else in my life that has convinced you I'm interesting and you gave this post the benefit of the doubt.  I hope you can do that for the rest of my oncoming posts too!