Before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.

What does it mean to be a good person? What does it mean to do the right thing? Does it matter if your heart is in the right place (if you do something that turns out to be not so good)? If you perform a good act for selfish reasons, is that just as good? Morality and ethics are complex issues, but perhaps Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird lays the baseline here.

At the end of the day, you have to be able to live with yourself and your decisions. Can you sleep soundly at night, knowing the choices you made? This is why simply being on the right or wrong side of the law isn’t really enough. It has to start with your own conscience. You have to be able to live with yourself.

I know that To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is a staple of American literature. Chances are the overwhelming majority of American middle or high school students will read it at some point. I, as a Canadian, did not read this book in school, so I decided to pick it up on my own.

As is oftentimes the case, I found the book offered a lot more depth and context compared to the 1962 movie. Yes, Gregory Peck won the Best Actor Oscar for his performance, but I didn’t make the same kind of connection with the characters as I did with the (audio)book. Apparently, there’s also a graphic novel, if you prefer that sort of thing.

For my part, I’ve been thinking about what it means to “be a good person” and to “do the right thing” for a long time. I’ve wondered what it means to shift your focus away from “what’s in it for me?” and toward “what’s in it for them?”

Doing a “good” thing or doing the “right” thing has to start from within. Your conscience must abide it. Before you can begin to worry what other people might think, you have to conclude, in your bones, whether you feel it’s the right thing to do. And remember, doing the “right” thing has value unto itself, so it’s not about “seeking moral dessert” either.

In To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch is the lawyer assigned to defend a black man accused of raping a white woman. Much of the town is against him. You have to realize this story takes place in the American South during the 1930s. But, he had to do what he felt was the “right” thing, even if the consequences didn’t quite turn out the way he had hoped.

Perhaps, we shouldn’t weigh the “goodness” or “rightness” of an act on its outcome either. If that’s so, should we weigh it on its motivation or intention instead? Whatever you might think, the first factor will always be whether you can live with that decision yourself.

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