The Self-Care of Moral Imagination
Discovering how embracing your own worth naturally expands your capacity for compassion and connection
If you had to name my moral frame, it’s something like: an expansive view of ethics; a maximally expansive view. A moral theory that grants dignity up front and seeks to hold it.
We do not extend moral consideration to others on their behalf. We extend moral consideration to others on our own behalf.
To hold moral posture toward others is a species of self care that embraces one’s own self worth and value, and in so embracing those features that distinguish you and your unique being and worth, you seek to extend that care to others because you’ve come to understand the grounding nature of being valued exactly in the way you show up.
There is no greater moral imagination than feeling affirmed as yourself and wishing that for others.
To deny moral extension to others is a reflection on one’s own insecurity, fear, distress, and pain. No one who feels whole will deny wholeness to another.
Holding this moral posture means actively promoting the dignity of all people.
It does not make sense for me to hold a conviction and not perform it.
I’d like to think that our core commitments cohere with our actions.
Of course, often our convictions are decoupled from our behaviors, and we experience the discomfort of thinking one thing and doing another. The remedy is to know how you align with your values and recognize that each new moment is an opportunity to choose differently than the moment before.
All things being equal, connecting with our own sense of moral worth and adopting a posture of treating all with whom we encounter with acknowledgement of their moral worth erects a boundary of shared space within which consideration of each other extends from a place of wholeness and satisfaction with oneself. Where people are denied dignity, I would wager it’s frequently from a source that has been denied the opportunity to foster their sense of worth and value derived solely from the fact that they are here; alive; something, someone, rather than nothing at all.
No one who feels whole will deny wholeness to another.
Extending moral consideration to others is not for their benefit but for yours because wisdom, acceptance, and the promotion of wellbeing for others is the mirror of the self projected onto others. Where there is love of others, there is love of self, and these are so necessarily related that in the eyes of rejection, judgement, and bigotry reflects brokenheartedness. Moral consideration extends from a full heart.
No one who feels whole will deny wholeness to another.