September 24, 2025

The other night, while trying to sleep, I came across a moral dilemma, and it's been sporadically reemerging in my thoughts ever since. Perhaps I've been extra sensitive lately- I wouldn't be surprised- but it seems to me that other people can be so hurtful. On one side of the spectrum, there are people who seem to deliberately hurt, or take pleasure in the hurting of others, and on the other, there are those who hurt others unknowingly, despite being well-intentioned. But the hurts, whether intentional or accidental, can feel so bad, at least for me. Now, onto the dilemma itself:

I must either concede that I am also hurting others in this way, or arrogantly consider myself to somehow be more moral than others, which probably means that I am, in fact, less moral than others.

Neither option is great, and I find little solace in the fact that everyone else is in the same boat.

Small Town Barista

The only gas station in town had been closed, temporarily, for some time. It shared a plaza with a traditional family restaurant, also closed.

The rest of the town looked well-kept. Most of main appeared to be thriving. A contemporary-style coffeeshop and café occupied an yellow-and-red brick building with radius windows. It had a trendy-sounding name and the decor wouldn't have been out of place in some big North American city neighbourhood at any point after 1994. We'd hoped to fill up the tank after eating. I figured that it would be better to ask a local than trust the map app. Cars were plentiful, and therefore, everyone must know where to get gas.

I posed the question to our barista, surely as worldly a person as one would find in a town with fewer than a thousand residents.

She thought a moment. "Are you heading this way (she pointed one way down main), or that way?" (she pointed down the other).

I indicated a third direction. "We're going that way."

"Oh, I don't know." She furrowed her brow. "I've never been that way."