You see something. You weren’t meant to see it. But as chance would have it, what happened makes your stomach drop and your eyebrows move up in an arch, adding an instant wrinkle in the middle of your forehead. And you say to yourself, I can’t believe what I am seeing. And now you are stuck with information; something you weren’t meant to see, but now it is rolling around in your head, doing flip-flops.

What do you do? With this information, you are placed in a dilemma. You have two choices, either (a) to keep your mouth shut or (b) tell the wronged party what you witnessed. Your brain is hurting even though the outcome has no bearing on your life or your relationships. Should you act on this information? Should you tell the wronged party what happened?  The rational part of your brain tells you to do nothing. It isn’t your business. You shouldn’t meddle.

The emotional part of your brain is on a see-saw. Going up and down and back and forth. Clearly what happened is wrong and the ethical part of you really wants to say something. But you can’t. You don’t know what happens behind those walls.

You remind yourself that people are flawed. They make mistakes. And unions aren’t perfect. They are ambiguous and lines are blurry. And you don’t know how these adults color their picture. They may prefer to go outside of the lines.

You return to your life, squashing what you witnessed. You move about your day. You will immerse yourself in your life. In the end, you convince yourself to forget what you saw, even saying to yourself that maybe you are just imagining things, even though you know you are feeding lies to your own conscience.

Because it isn’t your place. There may be more to it. There are so many ambiguities and questions.

You do nothing.

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How do you handle ethical dilemmas? Do you do something about them? Or do you move about your own life, convincing yourself it is not your business? Have you witnessed something you shouldn’t have seen? What was your reaction?

***Image by Alanna@VanIsle