Discernment II: Your Sense of Good and Community
This is still your private self, but now you must begin judging the social impact of your considered action.
“True integration will be achieved by true neighbors who are willingly obedient to unenforceable obligations.”
Martin Luther King
Discernment II moves your private considerations related to the decision you are about to make and the impact of that decision on your community. This is still your private self, but that private self is connected to a larger or smaller support system and your actions in the future will impact those who support you. Will that impact be ‘good’ for your community as well as yourself?
Like the word “good” words like “family”, “brother”, “sister”, “neighbor” are words that evolve in the context of community as well as your personal sense of good. Even though they fluctuate and change with the times, what these words seem to imply in common across time is the potential for ‘sustained caring and support’. We are born, learn to live, and are fated to die in the context of community. Discernment II is about how the consequences of your decision will resonate in your community. At this level ethics and morality will sort and define themselves as you strive to move forward with your decision. This is perhaps the hardest and most consequential stage of any complex decision.
The Good Decision Home 