Can We Talk 2

Paved With Good Intentions

         "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." How many times have you heard that one? But is it really true all the time? I take exception to it.

         Maybe we don't all perceive the road to hell in the same manner. I know there is a hell because I've had brief experiences of hell on earth, my marriage being one of them. The road to hell could be an obvious one, a life of crime, corruption, murder, or terrorism. It could be one of licentiousness and false pleasures. Or it might be more subtle, like an absentee landlord, or tax evasion, white collar crime. Or if you are particularly hard and unforgiving, you might say the road to hell is full of white lies, neglect, and minor abuse of "the rules". So what does any of that have to do with intentions?

         I can't think of how to say this without examples. If the alcoholic intends to stop drinking but just can't, he suffers hell on earth, and may end up there. (Who are we to judge what is in someone else's heart?) The gunslinger who intends to stop shooting has a big reputation; someone always wants to challenge him, so he kills one more time in self-defense. (I read a lot of westerns.) Maybe some of those type intentions pave that popular highway. But I don't believe all failed intentions lead downward.

         If you intend to lose five pounds, but don't, does that mean you won't get a heavenly reward? If you intended to visit Aunt Susie in the nursing home before it was too late, but didn't, does that mean you're doomed? If you intended to be more expressive to your wife and children, but held back for whatever baggage was in your head, is your fate sealed? Are intentions of charity, generosity, or self-improvement that go unaccomplished stopping all chances of escaping hell?

         I think we need good intentions, whether met or not. We need to have some decent ambitions. I intend to improve my correspondence (keep up with people), I intend to have better manners, I intend to visit the sick and the elderly more. I intend to read more. ETC. Failing to meet those does not put me on the road to hell. In fact, some failed intentions work out well. If I intend to do revenge, but have a change of heart, that's a good thing. If I intend to ridicule someone and hurt his reputation, but my plans are thwarted, that's a good thing.

         Intentions are something we only mention when we fall short of them. No one ever said I intended to graduate from college and I did. Someone might say, I intended to get married and have a family, but instead . . . Funny, how we only think about intentions when we miss them. I bet there's a lot of failed intentions on the road to Heaven, too.