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Samantha, Age 17
South Carolina
Is Obedience the Mother of All Virtue?
Saint Augustine said, "Obedience is in a way the mother of
all virtue." The primary biological function of a mother is
to give birth. Does obedience give birth to virtues?
When I was six, I obediently emptied the dishwasher every single
night. I was bored. I hated it. I was furious at mom and dad. Are
boredom, hatred, and fury virtues?
When I was eight, I desperately wanted a Ballerina Barbie for Christmas.
My Uncle Jim was mean and rude and hated kids. Every night for one
week before Christmas I obediently gave him an "affectionate"
hug and kiss. I got my Ballerina Barbie. Are greed manipulation,
and being a phony virtuous?
When I was twelve, I had a wild crush on Jonathon Cook. We went
out for three days. All of my friends thought he was a dork. I broke
up with him even though I really liked him. Was it virtuous to deny
my love for Jonathon and obediently give in to the pressure from
my friends?
When I was fifteen, my two older brothers and my sister left the
house and I found myself with lots of time to think. I realized
that obedience for all the wrong reasons was not making me happy.
I was in pain. Pain is associated with birth. They say adolescence
is the time when you leave your childhood behind and a woman is
born.
When I was sixteen, I hung out with the popular girls: Ashley
Brooks and Jessica Farr. Ashley got all her clothes from EXPRESS
and she drove a BMW. Jessica wore only Wet Seal and drove a Mercedes.
They were cool. One day last spring, Mary Carolyn Clanton came to
school wearing purple spandex with cowboy boots. She was not cool.
Jessica and Ashley viciously made fun of her in front of our entire
homeroom. I felt Mary Carolyn's embarrassment. I told Jessica and
Ashley to stop. I didn't care what they thought. I didn't care if
they didn't like me anymore. I didn't care if they didn't want to
be my friends. And I felt good.
Maybe obedience doesn't always give birth to virtue right away.
Maybe obedience for all the wrong reasons gives birth to pain and
pain gives birth to self-discovery and self-discovery gives birth
to the right kind of obedience for the right reasons and the right
kind of obedience gives birth to virtue.
Saint Augustine also said, "Love and do what you will."
As a woman, I understand that I have a free will and obedience
is my choice.
As a woman, I understand that it is more important to obey my inner
voice and my own sense of right and wrong than it is to obey someone
else's list of rules or to conform to their ideas about who i should
be or how I should behave
As a woman, I understand that the only motivation for obedience
that will lead me to virtue is love.
T.S. Eliott once said, "We shall not cease from exploration
and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started
and know that place for the first time."
Last night, I emptied the dishwasher...
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Describe an
event from which you learned a lesson "the hard way."
