Sunbathing in a Cemetery

Sometimes we encounter circumstances, or need to make decisions in our lives, which just cause our morality to hit a brick wall. Folks who wear Sassy Scrubs in their work lives experience this on a daily basis. Overcoming a personal dislike for a particularly antagonistic or obnoxious patient so that you can give him good health or dental care is one instance of this struggle.

I encountered a situation recently which made me think about this. I live in a small town. Ask Webster for the definition of podunk, back water, or hicksville and a photo of our lovely, but very quiet, town is all that is listed in the dictionary. That's it - just the photo. Everyone understands.

Anyway, I was driving down the main highway past the local cemetery one sunny afternoon and was surprised to see a young woman sunbathing. Not just sunbathing. Sunbathing atop one of the graves. And not just sunbathing. Sunbathing topless while sprawled across one of the graves. Needless to say, this sight surprised me and though I'm no prude, I have to admit I was somewhat shocked. Shocked that this young woman made the decision to sunbathe, topless, in a cemetery, with her head butted up to a headstone and sprawled across a grassy grave, with a bottle of tanning lotion at her side. Hmm....how does one make a conscious decision like that one? This was the best place she could find for sunbathing? The headstone kept her head cool and shaded while she toasted the rest of her? It was the quietest location to insure she would not be distracted from her earnest tanning quest? Her own backyard was already filled up with other sunbathers?

Now here's my moral dilemma to this scene. I have no problem with a young woman sunbathing and even sunbathing topless, though she was very close to a main highway and safety-wise it was not a smart decision on her part, if you ask me. My problem was that she was doing so atop some person's grandma or grandpa. Actually, atop Grandma or Grandpa's grave. There is probably no law against topless sunbathing in a cemetery (I doubt the town ever thought they'd need THAT law!) so it's not that it's WRONG. But it certainly is NOT RIGHT either.

So this is the moral brick wall. Sometimes we come up against situations where we need to make decisions about what may not necessarily be WRONG but we also know our decision may not be RIGHT either. Although the "wrong" decision is often obvious, the "not right" decision is often more subjective.

I've used this scenario several times to help me make decisions since that sunny day in our little podunk town. If I think I might go over the line into the "not right" territory, I think about the young woman who made that decision I witnessed. Let's hope none of the decisions you have to make today end up being the "not right" kind too. Sometimes it's a tough call, but I pretty much try not to make the mistake of being so NOT RIGHT that I'd be topless sunbathing in a cemetery.