In my office I have eight inch sculptures of Gollum and Smeagol. They are actually one character from the Lord of the Rings books and movies. One has a smiling, wide-eyed helpful face and the other a grimacing, narrow-eyed sinister face. Other than their faces they are exactly alike. They are representations of the good and the bad, the id and the ego, the dark and the light in all of us.
In my freshman year at High School there was this person who was the target of all the “in crowd’s” persecution. I can remember standing in the hallway of school half way in between the “in crowd” and the target. The debate that raged inside my mind is seared into my memory still almost 30 years later. Do I join the in crowd and pick up the jeers and laughter or do I stand in defense of the target and take the persecution on me. I never was quite IN with the “in crowd” and this might seal the deal. But did I want to be IN with them if this is what they did? The target was a small, slovenly, creature with a serious overbite and coke-bottle glasses, did I really want to associate myself with him? Be popular or be persecuted? Be IN or be OUT? The battle in my mind raged for only seconds but it felt like eons. I chose to be IN, I chose the dark side of the force, I chose the bad and it has scarred me for life.
We all have a good dog and a bad dog at war within us. Which one wins? Which one wins is the question that we all must face repeatedly in our lives; sometimes even daily. Do I go into that bar? Do I see that man or that woman? Do I use this money to gamble with? Do I side with the inconvenient right or the easy wrong? Which dog wins?
There is an answer to that question. The answer is: The one that wins is the one that you FEED. If you find you constantly lean or tend toward one side or the other you will find that is because you feed that dog more than the other. If you feed the good dog it will become stronger and bully the bad dog the next time. If you feed the bad dog you will find it beating off the good dog more and more frequently. If you verbally abuse someone once, it will be easier the second time and even easier the third. If you stand up for someone who is being abused once then you will find it easier the second time and third time. The dogs never die, at least on this side of eternity, but they will become weaker and weaker the more you feed the opposite dog. Which will you feed today?