One isn’t two
and two isn’t three
But while in the second, we judge harshly the first.

Three isn’t four
and four isn’t five.
Yet caught in the third we don’t see its preparation for the fourth
And so it goes

At that sliver of moment the now
Looking forward backwards
Can forward only be seen when we turn back to judge.

What is done for other by self
what is done for other for self

Self may too receive by what it gives
What of it. Ought it even surprise.

If the giving is natural
If the giving intent truly is to benefit other
then is not the self being self to be for other
And both may be affirmed
in the single act.

Not so easy to be sure.
if self is truly doing for other
But if so, then so little may be
any line between.

The higher road than the one
taken by that other one,
that rude one
that selfish one
that hurtful one.

To resist the urge to strike back in kind
or worse.
On the higher road.

But then
There is a sense in which they win.
Isn’t there.
Something gotten away with
Something held unaccountable
The game played unfair.

Of course the thing is not to play.
Though the metaphor is all wrong.
Real life is no game.

Still it remains
this sense of one lost while another won.

In order,
To resist the urge to strike back in kind
Terms redefined
A different choice wherein
“beating”
“winning”
is acting the way the other did not
making a choice made not by other.

Choices not and choices made
The higher road.

Still it remains
this sense of loosing.
What is humanity that it is the other choices
not the higher roads.
It is the other choices that feel better.

Choices not and choices made
feelings desired
versus a world that needs made.