Be the Devil's Advocate- Your Call

I saw Taylor Hackford's 1997 classic, 'The Devil's Advocate' recently. My sisters and I sat in the living room analyzing, as usual, the moral behind the story.(Not that all movies do or should have any; wink). A 'softie' as usual, my heart went out to Mary Ann (Charlize Theron), the unfortunate victim of the devil's grand scheme. While her husband Kevin (Keanu Reeves) was climbing the success ladder at any cost, Mary Ann was going through hell. It was a classic example of robbing Peter to pay Paul.

I know you remember that movie so well and you're probably shaking your head in wonder at how Kevin Lomax sold his soul to the devil (his boss and father), until the latter part of the movie. But wait a minute! Don't we all? Maybe not to the 'dark side' like in Kevin's case, but when you'd rather cut corners to make a bigger profit, sacrifice quality time with loved ones for that 'exciting' extramarital affair or go have a quick roll in the hay to get that all-important promotion, then there's little or no difference between you and Mr. Kevin Lomax!

A very close friend once told me that sometimes you really need to decide between maintaining your integrity and being successful. Hmm! 'What's success without integrity?', I pondered as I walked down the stairs. Is success measured by material acquisition or peace of mind and a good legacy? Then I wondered what integrity really is. We all crave to associate with people who have integrity, but are we such people? Are our words in sync with our actions? For a man who's been raised to trample on people to get to the top, that's the only right thing he knows to do, yet he tries to train his kids to respect and have each other's back. For the lady who stands in street corners or who sees people as ATM machines, she must feel that's the right thing to do. The world owes her; it's her right. But when we all go back to our closets, away from the crowd, lights and booze, something within us still knows the truth and what's right.  The challenge is that a lot of us have stifled that part of our hearts and refuse to acknowledge what our hearts whisper to us.

We've all got a choice; jump the queue, sleep your way to the top, blackmail, lie, doctor the books and knock down whoever is a threat-real or perceived, Or work hard and smart, give back to society and maintain a clear conscience that helps you sleep better at night.

Option 1 gets you all the 'good'things of life (that is, until the long arm of justice catches up with you) while Option 2 might take a few more years of diligence, sacrifice and positive thinking to get you there. You might be unable to afford your own yacht or globe trot like you've always wanted, sometimes, it could even be as bad as being unable to pay your bills or afford a decent meal, but I think you'd sleep easy and look back without fear and regrets. I've and some really great people I know have been through that; wasn't easy, but did we survive! My avatar surely says 'Yes!'

What's it going to be? I applaud your choice, whatever it is. Life's what you make of it; good, bad, positive or negative, as long as you're proud to live with the results of your decisions. Have fun living with your decisions and  remember that no matter what you choose, it must be for you and not to please society or to show-off to that person who knocked you down on your way up.
Let your best life begin now; for you! xoxo