The Grade Character Rumination

Today’s epiphany was about character. Not to be a judge of character but more of an analyst, something prompted me to think about humans. Walking home today, people I was with were talking about each other, and a lady talked about how one of the guys with us was a decent young man. And some of the other guys laughed about it. I suppose the reason was because he likes girls, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t respect them. Let’s just say he’s wild when it comes to that aspect. It made me think about what is the yardstick for measurement of character, and because perfection is not human, we can never be 100/100 – perfect score.

Like I said, this is by no means an attempt to be a judge of character. And I would appreciate if it isn’t interpreted in that context. I am a thinker, and I like to relate things I hear to real life, even if I am being taught in class, I like to think about whatever new knowledge I have gained and apply it to a real life situations and only when things make sense to me do I move on, and if it doesn’t make sense, I ask questions until it does. What transpired activated a series of thoughts in my head.

Firstly, I thought about what qualifies one as a decent person. I thought about the grading system used in my university, and how 70–100 points is grade A, 60–69 is grade B and so on. If a student scores 70, and another scores 98, they both get the same grade A. And it doesn’t really matter if there was a 28 points difference between both of them, they are both A students, since they have the same grade. I wondered if that was equivalent to decency. If there are grades to it.

No matter how good, nice or decent a person is, they can have a bad trait or character that peculiarly makes them a bad person if you’re looking for that character only. The very fact that good is relative from individual to individual further proves my point in some way. My experience, principles, morals and the environment I grew up in has shaped me into who I am, and while I might have something of a bad habit or character, generally, I am a nice person.

Let me use a hypothetical example of a person who is a thief, he is a thief because he steals what belongs to others but he’s also kindhearted, as he helps people in need and defends a random lady being harassed on the street. His only flaw now is that he is a thief. Now this led to my other chain of thought about how we can different persons to different people. Now, the aforementioned person in the example above is a thief to some, and a gentleman and to another.

The question now is this, is he a bad person because he is a thief, or a good person because he defends the defenseless and helps the needy? Or is he just a person who isn’t perfect, but with his own flaws? That was what was on my mind for most of the walk home.

In conclusion, I apologise if I had sent the wrong impression at some point of writing this article, but that was how it came to me. I have this migraine that’s making it difficult for me to concentrate and maybe express myself in a more understanding manner, but I hope the message was passed nonetheless, and I would like to hear your thoughts on the matter in the comment section.

Thank You For Reading 🖤🖤