I think morals have been on a lot of peoples minds lately, mainly because this election season there seems to be a lack of them from everyone. I’m not here to talk politics and being upset by them. Actually if I’m being honest that’s the last thing in the world I want to do. Instead I’m going to talk about your morals and about mine. I’ve said before that I have strong morals, and I do, but if you asked me to list some of them I wouldn’t be able to. They feel just like a code of right and wrong. In a lot of ways they are. Here’s the definition:

Morals (noun): a person’s standards of behavior or beliefs concerning what is and is not acceptable for them to do.

I find morals interesting, because while they link to the general idea of right and wrong, they’re a lot more personal than that. And they also come from a very personal place, whether that be religion, our upbringing, our education, or a mixture of factors.

When I ask myself where my morals come from it’s hard to answer. Religion pays a big factor and so does education, but I feel like most of them were from my upbringing and how my parents raised me.

Actually if we look at it a lot of our morals come from other people. In my case, I would be fine with my morals being a clone of my mothers, because I’ve seen how she handles things and how kind she is. But some of these other morals I’ve picked up from others… well, they might not be the best.

It would be nice to think that morals were a very set thing that came from inside of us. That we were born with them, but I don’t think we are. I think we follow our heart and mind with them, but our heart and our mind can be influenced a lot easier than we think. Which is why I’m suggesting that every now and again we should sort our moral luggage.

It’s not something you can do all at once. Actually, it’s impossible to do that. Examining your morals has to take place when in conversation or when watching TV. We need to occasionally look at what conversations strike us as right or wrong and then look at where we got that idea from, then sort the facts.

I bet a lot of your morals are sound. I have a lot of faith in ya’ll. Hopefully there are only one or two that you have to rethink. But I think it’s important to go through why we think certain things. Was it something your teacher said? A friend? Did something change your mind? Why was your mind on something else to begin with?

You might find out more about yourself while doing this, or your friends, or you might simply find out that you had it right to being with.