For some reason, today, I have been thinking about a hypothetical moral dilema. As if I didn't have enough things in the real world to worry about. The reason why I'm thinking about this has to do with Thanksgiving, but that's too long and windy a train of thought to get into, so I'll just give you the moral delima.

First of all, let me tell you where I got it from. It was one of those touchy feely college courses, which, like philosophy courses, you just sort of take to bend your noodle a little bit and get a break from the grind of your major....but then these turn out to be the courses that you actually learned something about life in. In your major you learn a lot of theory. But in philosophy, the social sciences, and the liberal arts you debate questions like "What is evil?" which is a really important thing to know about before you go to work in corporate America!

I can't remember the name of the course, but it was taught by Dr. Hausermen, the guy who had us all take the Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator. This alone was life affecting for me. Before I heard about the test I was convinced that my viewpoint was so different from any one elses that I knew that I was probably quietly insane. In fact, I'm just a minority personality type. There was even another one in my class, a guy. The other students, the majority of whom were psych, sociology, or nursing majors gave us the measured look one gives to specimens - but, since the guy thought he had just been quietly insane all those years too, we were both sort of USED to that look and answered questions lobbed with characteristic INFP patience.

Anyhow, I really got into the hot seat, so to speak the day that Dr. H. posed his "moral dilema" since my male counterpart was out with the flu. This is the excersise:

Long ago, there was a town which was divided by a deep, wide, alligator infested river. There was only one bridge across this river, and that bridge was the only way to cross the river except for a single ferry, run by a single ferry man.
There were two lovers, Suzie and Charlie, who lived on opposite sides of the river. One day there was a terrible storm, which created great flooding on both sides of the town and washed out the bridge. Many people were killed or injured.
As soon as it became possible to do so, Suzie went with great haste to the Ferryman, to ask to be transported to the other side, because her love for Charlie was so great that she couldn't stand not knowing what had happened to him, and if he was all right. However, she did not have the money to pay the fare.
No matter how much she pleaded with the Ferryman, he would not lower his rate, because of the danger to him and his business in making the crossing. At last he said, "Well, all right, I'll take you if you sleep with me first."
Suzie declined. She went to her Uncle, who was very wealthy, and poured out the whole story to him - how she wanted so badly to see Charlie, what the Ferryman had said, etc. But her Uncle did not help her.
Finally, in desperation, she returned to the Ferryman, and paid his "fare".
Upon reaching the other side of the river, she ran through the streets, searching for Charlie. At last she found him, healthy and unharmed. They fell into each others arms. Charlie asked her how she had managed to make it across the river, and Suzie told him everything, including that she had slept with the Ferryman as payment for her fare.
Charlie was horrified and cast Suzie away from him. He called her all the names he had for an unfaithful woman, and refused to ever see her again.
Thus, she wandered through the streets in tears until she was stopped by Slugo, a fellow that she and Charlie both knew. Slugo asked her why she was crying, and she told him the entire story, from start to finish, leaving nothing out. "That's terrible" said Slugo.
And so he went and found Charlie and beat him up.

Who is the hero of this story? Who is the villian?

Well, when Dr. H. presented this, there were groans all around. This was too much like life! Too many grey areas, etc. Discussion went on forever.

Why was I in the hot seat? Because I said that I thought that the story had a very clear hero and very clear villian. And, with charecteristic INFP - "Never give when it comes to what you really believe" fashion, took on the entire class in defending my choices. I mean everybody. At the end of the class, Dr. H took my hand and lead me up to the front of the room ( and you can bet that I was pretty darn distracted by my argument to let that happen) and he said.

"How many of you were stunned to see Tea come totally out of her shell, and not use any concilatory words in her argument? How many of you thought Tea was almost acting like a different person?" Almost everybody raised their hands, and I was ready to go back into my shell and close its hatch behind me. "You have witnessed that part of her personality which engages when something is really important to her. Now, how are you feeling, Tea?"

"Exhausted. Unhappy. Stressed And also embarrassed. How did I get up here in front of everyone?" I said a little crossly.

"How many of you, if you just presented a brilliant ,moving argument like that would feel exhausted, and unhappy?" Almost everyone sat there looking puzzled. "How many would feel proud of themselves? ( some hands) Exhilerated? ( different hands) Engergized ( more, different hands). If you see Tea on campus later today, make sure you let her know that you aren't mad at her. If you see her and she doesn't greet you, don't think she's mad at you. She might be to drained to even notice you....."

Which, of course, resulted in practically the entire class walking me to my car to make sure they didn't lose their pet INFP to a stress related nervous breakdown on the way!

Who did I think was the hero and the villian? Well, maybe I won't tell you today. I'll play professor tonight and ask you what you think. As Dr. H. said all those years ago: there are no right or wrong answers. It's about what you think is important. But, I promise to reveal my answer, which is still the same even after 15 years.