To get the awful taste of Don Imus' casual bigotry out of my head, I want to post about something positive ... from, of all unlikely sources, an insurance company TV ad, "Responsibility. What's Your Policy?" from Liberty Mutual. Most of you have probably seen this at least once, but have you paid attention?

It's no secret that I thought of myself as a Neopagan Witch from about 1983 until only a couple of years ago, and I don't know if I've gotten around to mentioning that I've taught my own version of that "Wicca 101" course to a couple of dozen people or so. No surprise; stick around the movement for more than 3 or 4 years, and you'll teach it, too. Like most instructors, I addressed the obvious comparison between Wicca's "Law of Threefold Return" (from Gardner's High Magic's Aid) and the Hindu concept of karma. To me, the concept of karma is an interesting one, because it's an operating principle (or at least a rule of thumb) that can be seen in operation, even if (like me, much of the time) you remain skeptical about the existence of any supernatural being or force enforcing it.

What whoever wrote and directed that insurance company ad seems to understand, that I wish everybody understood, is that it's not about fairness. And it's not about justice. And it's not about getting back what you send out. It's just simply this. By your every action, you participate in the creation of the world in which you live. Other people watch your behavior, and because people are members of a social species, your example adjusts their sense of what's acceptable behavior, what's expected behavior, what's necessary behavior.

The commercial, for those of you who're blocked from YouTube (or in case the video disappears), shows a series of very brief vignettes. In each of them, person A does something helpful for person B. We don't know whether person B goes on to do anything nice for anyone else, or whether or not somebody who saw person A do something nice does something nice for person A in return; person A and person B drop out of the picture. Instead, the camera briefly focuses in on someone in the background, person C. And in the next scene, person C spots an opportunity to do something nice for yet another person, person D, in at least one case, putting themself at risk to do so, and spontaneously does the nice thing, the kind thing, the right thing. And in the background of that scene, person E notices what person C has done, and the process continues to the end of the 60 second commercial.

There are all kinds of reasons offered why you should go out of your way to do the right thing for other people. Some people say you should do it out of fear of divine or supernatural repercussions if you don't or in hope of some supernatural reward, that is to say, for religious reasons. Some people say you should do it because you've been told to, that is to say, out of obedience. Some people say you should do it because it makes you look good, because it increases the odds that people will do nice things for you, that is to say, for your own reputation. (And I have to say that, while it was never my thought or intention, my own life proves that that the logic behind that reason is sound.) Some people say you should do it because other people will judge you harshly if you don't, they teach you to be ashamed of yourself if you don't. Some people say you should do the right thing to rid yourself of nagging feelings of debt over the nice things that have been done for you, that is to say, out of gratitude.

Some of those reasons are good reasons, some maybe not so good. But the reason that touches me the most deeply is this one: whenever you do something cruel, the people around you see that the world contains cruelty, that cruelty is within the realm of normal behavior. Whenever you do something selfish or negligent, people learn to expect selfishness and negligence. But when you do the right thing, you create a world in which other people learn that they can expect other people to do the right thing. Or, at least, they can sometimes hope others will do the right thing without being total saps. And I know that, when they're making snap decisions about how far out of their own way to go on behalf of others, people treat their experience of "how the world works" as one of the bigger, more important inputs. Every time you heal a hurt, right a wrong, or prevent harm, you get one reward immediately: you immediately, and without any social or legal or spiritual intervention needed on your behalf, get to live in a world that has one less hurt person in it, one less victim of injustice, one less harm done. And from that moment forward, you get to live in a world where that effect has rippled outwards, as that person and everybody around them and everybody who knows them lives their life, makes their own decisions, with yet one more reminder that sometimes people do do the right thing.

The funny thing about me is, I see so few people who seem to understand this, and this little 60 second movie is such a perfect illustration of this principle, that this cheesy little TV ad not infrequently brings a tear to my eye, even after repeated viewings. I'm a sentimentalist that way.