uch is witnessed in society.  When people think of greed, they can find examples of it everywhere.  Likewise for hate, salaciousness, indifference, cruelty, and so on.  Indeed, what is rather frightening is that examples of immorality seem to be in abundance.  Not only that, they seem to be highly valorized by the media.  Immorality appears to overshadow morality in terms of what seems to be part of the reality of our lives.  My thesis, quite simply, is that this makes for a most untoward moral configuration in the lives of individuals, especially those in the throes of moral development.

I hold a quite basic view about human beings, namely that we are configured emotionally and psychology by the salient experiences of our lives that take place when we are young.  We see this easily enough with accents.  And that is precisely why no one expects an American (born and raised) to speak with a German or even a British accent; nor conversely.  Any exception to this rule requires an explanation—and a very good one at that. 

Of course, with language we have a psychological configuration rather than a moral one.  Actually, what we have is a configuration of the muscles of the mouth in terms of word pronunciation.  The point, though, is that this configuration is lasting.

I hold that a like configuration occurs with respect to our moral upbringing.  A young life that has witnessed first-hand courage or self-sacrifice or unshakable integrity is configured differently than a young life that has not witness any of these things. 

By witness, I do not mean watching an event on television.  Rather, I mean experiencing the event with one’s own sense in real-time.  Nothing can take the place of that.  This is why people often prefer live concerts to a DVD of the concert, although the latter delivers a better account of what happened at the concert.  For seeing what happened can never equal being there as the moment unfolds.  To be sure, it sometimes happens that a live event and a televised event are one and the same.  Still, watching on television an event that is taking place in real time will never equal the moment of being with others and sharing their joy simultaneously. 

When it comes to sports and entertainment we readily concede the point that has just been made.  I maintain that it applies with equal force to morality as well. 

To witness a total stranger risking his life in order to say another is to have an experience that will stay with one forever.  To see mom or dad exhibiting the moral patience and persistence of a Job in providing for their family is to have an experience of moral excellence that will last a life time. 

As the preceding paragraph indicates, there are two ways of witnessing an event.  One can witness moral excellence exhibited where one is not in any way the beneficiary.  Or, one can witness moral excellence by being the intended beneficiary of the moral excellence exhibited.

I maintain that a morally whole life needs both forms of witnessing.  That is, there needs to be salient instances of moral excellence of both types.  The moral excellence has to be genuine and not something that has been fabricated for moral excellence simply for the purposes of public consumption.

We seem to have arrived at the point in society where we think that if we say it loud enough and often enough that suffices to make this or that act a form of moral excellence.  I do not think so, however. 

For where there is genuine moral excellence, then we can trust the person who so exhibited it.  And my sense is that few of us are willing to trust others.

Witnessing moral excellence gives us a bench mark for comparison.  What is more, and perhaps more importantly, witnessing moral excellence invariably inspires.  Indeed, one sure sign of a corrupt soul is that the person can witness a most majestic display of moral excellence and yet not be moved in a positive way by it.  There is no room to be angry at someone who risked her life in order to save the neighbors children from a burning house.  The only option is to be inspired.  And this tells us something very profound about what constitutes being psychologically healthy. 

There is indeed a congruence, albeit not a perfect one, between being psychologically healthy and morality.  Certain moral displays necessarily have a positive impact upon us.  Or so it is if we are psychologically healthy.

In view of the preceding remarks, consider a developing life that has not witnessed any salient examples of moral excellence.  The child has seen the acquisition of lots of material goods and the accumulation of considerable wealth.  But at no point as the child really witnessed a salient display of moral excellence.  The child has not witnessed it on the part of his parents.  The child has not witnessed on the part of the parents of his friends.  The neighbors do not provide an example of it.  The child’s teachers do not.  And on the list goes.  The only examples to be found of courage and heroism or of integrity and self-sacrifice are in films. 

On my view, what we have in this case is a morally vapid life.  It is not a life of immorality, but it is vapid nonetheless.  It is a life without the bench marks of excellence that often makes a life worth living.  It is a life without the bench marks of excellence that often give us a reason to get up in the morning and take on the day.  It is a life without those moments that often enable us to overcome a profound sense of despair. 

We naturally think of a life without the highlights of a great sports match or an extraordinary moment of entertainment as a less rich less.  This is no less the case when it comes to morality.  Unfortunately, many who readily grasp the first truth are painfully slow to see the second one. 

Fundamentally salient experiences are a part of our identity.  This is so whether we are talking about experiences in morality or entertainment or intellectual endeavors or sports.  Notice that when a person witnessed the occurrence of a momentous event, doing so never loses its meaning to the individual.  The person savors it again and again and again.  That the person witnessed it becomes a part of how the individual defines herself or himself.

Imagine, then, just how much wonderful this world would be if along with, as opposed to instead of, the various final matches in sports or the extraordinary highlights of a concert, there was also marvelous experiences of moral excellence that filled our lives. 

At a time when so many seem to have just about everything, something yet seems to be missing.  The suggestion of this essay is that we look for the missing good not in yet a newer or bigger version of what it is that we already have.  Quite the contrary, the answer seems to lie in a different entirely direction, namely morality itself: salient examples of moral excellence, I suggest, would readily fill the void.  What a refreshing truth to be able to put forward.