Self Discipline

What we do on some great occasion will probably depend on what we already are; and what we are will be the result of previous years of self-discipline. – Henry Parry Liddon

Years ago, I had a post office box. One day when I picked up my mail, there was a letter that had a red stamp listing “postage due.” I waited in line until it was my turn and handed the clerk the letter so I could pay the postage. She looked at me, looked back at the letter, and then asked me where I got it.

I told her it was in my post office box. She started laughing and said, “I can’t believe you. Don’t you know you could have just walked out of the post office without paying this?”

I told her the truth. It never crossed my mind to walk out without paying something that was owed. For some reason, she thought that was the funniest thing she had heard all day.

As I was leaving, I could hear her saying to the other postal workers, “You’re not going to believe this . . .”

Are we really that cynical about each other? Do we assume that people will skip out on their debts unless someone is looking?

Maybe it was all those years of having parents who insisted we live up to our obligations that made “doing the right thing” such a habit that I never even question what to do in situations like that.