Grace: Everyone deserves it
Samuel Keane-Rudolph
Op/Ed Columnist		  

 

 

 


This week I had been expecting to finish the article about truth I started two weeks ago, but recent experiences convinced me to write about something else. There are many virtues in the world, and in my Issues and Ethics class, we’ve talked about several. I believe there is a virtue that corresponds with every evil in the world, and that evil is simply a corruption of something that was virtuous. In any case, the virtue I’d like to talk about today is one seldom talked about in secular circles and too glibly addressed in religious ones.
That virtue is called grace. And the event that brings up this issue is a recent escalation in difficulties between my neighbors and I and with a professor in my hardest course and I. My neighbors enjoy music, often very loudly, and one of them frequently has his girlfriend over and…they’re rather loud. I’ve repeatedly asked them to be quieter, but lately I’ve gotten extraordinarily angry inside because I don’t feel that I should have to ask people to be polite, they should just do it.
My professor has a legendary reputation for being difficult to get along with, and I had blithely assumed the professor couldn’t be as bad as I thought. The first few weeks of the class conspired to prove me wrong. I can’t walk into the class without becoming angry.
Now, on the outside I have never been unkind to any of these people, or so I hope, but on the inside I’ve been furious for several weeks and I cannot look at the people in question without being angry. Where does grace come into this?
Well, grace is loving and respecting people who do nothing to “deserve” it. It’s great to love our families and our friends and people who are kind to us, but that doesn’t make us good people – everyone is kind to the people who are kind to them. Love your neighbor no one has a problem with, but… love your enemies and those who do you harm? There’s your true test.
And why should we be graceful toward people who have none for us? Because we’ve all been that person at some point; and we will be again in the future. Remember that time I snapped at my best friend because I was in a bad mood and just didn’t want to listen to her? Remember that time you ignored your little brother because it was more fun to go out with your friends than help him with homework? Oh yeah, that. But that was just because I was so tired, or you had made plans before… well, maybe the last time someone snapped at you or didn’t want to hang out with you, they had the same excuse.
And that’s why we all need grace ourselves, and also why we need to give it. Perhaps most of all to difficult neighbors or difficult professors… because the next time, we might be the one who needs it.