The Four Kids
When it comes to how reality will ultimately deal with humans, the best scenario I can think of to describe it would be likening the circumstance to that of children who did something wrong (let’s say broke something), and who knew were going to get in trouble for it…
There are four primary types of children in this scenario, just as there are four main types of human outlooks:
1. The defiant kid — the kid who’s like: “Fuck it. I already know I’m going to get in trouble anyway, so I might as well ball out until the axe falls.”
2. The denial kid — the kid who basically closes their eyes and covers their ears, and does everything to avoid facing, not only the consequences of their actions, but the fact that they even did or participated in something wrong to begin with. The denial kid points fingers, deflects and blames others. They try to morally sanitize their actions with intentions and lies they tell themselves and others. They try to “rationalize” what happened to others, so as to feel less culpable.
3. The “fix it” kid — the kid who does what they can in efforts to fix the problem so that they can hopefully avoid the consequences of their actions and/or behavior…
and finally…
4. The “restorative kid” — the one who realizes they did something wrong, and who wants to right the wrong, not for fear of consequences, but instead, because they want to restore balance to the thing they affected and/or caused harm to.
In terms of dispensing consequences, reality [God] will be kindest/gentlest to the latter, and most brutal to the former.
The defiant kid is a destructive, greedy and self-serving, narcissistic little jackass. It doubles down on the wrong behavior, instead of seeking to correct the thing that’s been affected by it.
The denial kid is a [sickly] cowardly little shit. Then again, so is the defiant kid though, as both kids attempt to justify not making concerted efforts to address or fix the problems they’ve created and/or contributed to…
The fix it kid is scared, but not cowardly — as they don’t let fear cripple them into inaction; nor do they seek solace in aggressions, affirmation from others or denial.
The restorative kid is the only genuinely brave individual. They accept that they might have to face consequences for what they’ve done, regardless of whether or not they’re able to fix the thing they’ve broken or contributed to breaking, however, avoiding trouble isn’t the reason for why they try to fix what they broke. They try to fix it because they’re intrinsically motivated to restore balance to the thing they affected…
In order to restore things to their proper condition, the restorative kid must first attempt to understand, not only what they did wrong, but also how things were before they did the [injurious] thing they did. That requires observation, personal honesty and reasoning. It requires a willingness to see that they were wrong and how.
This is who God/reality loves. This is who God/reality pardons for errors…
Kids 1 and 2 are no good. Kid 3 is passable. Kid 4 is lovable — a well turned out human being…