Misfit Toys Hannah Freibert

In 2015, two plus two equals four. In 1915, two plus two equaled four. Two plus two has always equaled four; and it will always equal four. It is for this precise reason that I find comfort in math- that is, when I'm not being lost in the equations consisting of far more letters than numbers. The point: it is black and white. Good vs evil? Hm, not so much.

As humans, we take refuge in the certainties. Thus, its no wonder that events are consistently told with two sides; the triumphant hero, and the dissolute villain. Unfortunate for the rest of us, this clear cut division does not extend beyond the water in your eyes after hour 3 of straining to watch "The Dark Knight Rises" from a dim lit laptop. Batman- good, Joker- bad. Thats all, right? Wrong. Don't get me wrong, there are those people. And by those I mean the perfects; the "performs each life task flawlessly with a pristine moral code closely-followed" type people. And you wonder, "God, is there anything you can't do?" On the opposite end of the spectrum, there are the historically renown "evils". Osama Bin Laden, Fidel Castro, Adolf Hitler, the gist. But even then, were their motives truly evil? Isn't it true that ISIL is performing acts in the name of its religion, in which they believe justifies them as righteous? *(still clearly not moral, don't spin me wrong- just going for a point here).

I recall being given a prompt last year in Psychology that went as follows: A man's wife is fatally ill. However, a cure exists... the asking price? $100,000. If she does not receive the treatment, she will die. The man contemplates swiping the medicine in secret, while every other patient must pay full price. Should he steal the medication for his wife? Is it not still stealing? Can it be differentiated from any other circumstance? Here lies the problem. What IS the line? One man's answer cannot speak for that of his neighbor. Looking past the outliers- the perfects and their polars', that is where we reside. In the gray moshpit of misfit toys. And this is where humanity will remain, attempting to sort through what we think is just and what we think it not just. But for the most part, we all fall right in the middle.