Wednesday a.m.

Good morning! Who's got your back?

Wow, another rainy morning! I like the rain a lot, so I'm not going to complain. I re-arranged my run yesterday and got it in. It's looking like flexibility is going to be a key concept for today as well. I'm working through this running funk. The Persimmon 5 K is Saturday, and I'm not that excited about it. I will run and run it fairly hard, but I don't expect that my time will be all that great. It doesn't really matter. More than a billion Chinese will never know.

Part of my morning ritual is to read a few online newspapers to see what stories dominate. It's interesting to see how certain stories rise to the top. I also read a few blogs of all kinds, from theology to running/biking. One of them is Experimental Theology. Richard Beck is an interesting, stimulating thinker. I really enjoyed this morning's post about the banality of goodness, reacting to thoughts about the banality of evil. The thought in both is that so much of life comes down to simple, seemingly insignificant, choices that we make everyday. It's the stuff of integrity.

Evil is ordinary people thoughtlessly making a million small choices. No doubt this account cannot explain all that needs to be explained about evil, but it does explain much, even much about the Holocaust. The Holocaust couldn't have happened if the German populace hadn't over time gradually consented through seemingly insignificant daily choices. Laughing nervously, but without objection, to the anti-Semitic joke. Not shopping at the Jewish store. Accepting the promotion when the more qualified Jewish person was passed over. Casting a vote on election day. And so on.

So true, and it's also true on the otherside of things, goodness.

We need to recognize that goodness is banal rather than heroic. Goodness is achieved through a million small acts of kindness, goodness, and generosity. Goodness is achieved through a million small acts of subversion, resistance, and protest. Millions of small Yes's and millions of small No's.

I've been thinking and reading about integrity. I see a lack of it in my life at times and in the lives of others. I ran across this little thought in the Bible I'm reading through this year. Each day it has a thought or two about the passage that is assigned.

Integrity is behaving in the dark just as you would in the light. It is being what you say you are and doing what you said you would even when no one is watching. It is consistency of character, with no hidden agenda or twisted motive. Integrity is what causes you to tell the truth, regardless of how tempting it might be to shade the truth.

OK, I need to go. I have lots and lots of little decisions to make today, I need to pray I make the right ones.