5. Positive Revenge: Bad Grace and a flash of optimism (Do we deserve happiness?)

Bad Grace occurs when we are acting good begrudgingly and are not doing it out of the goodness of our hearts. Hence the outcome may be moral but the origin is not. When we do something begrudgingly, it is born out of injustice and unfairness. Partly we may be expecting something in return as well (be it material or an act of gratitude). Hence its origins are calculative.

In order to achieve Positive Revenge in the moral sense, we are to give of ourselves without the occurrence of Bad Grace. Bad Grace limits the good that the agent will do and in turn also places a burden upon the person who has benefited from the act of good.

This is something which I am highly conscious of now and am highly critical of myself for my past incidences of Bad Grace. But today in a very mundane setting, I found myself with Bad Grace once more.

I allowed two children of two different families to take a seat before me in the line. Their parents did not say a word of thanks. And wonders of all wonders, one mother even jumped my queue in the end though she had clearly stated that her son would go after me earlier. And there I was thinking: Hey! How come these people did not even say a word of thanks? How come she jumped me in the queue?

Bad Grace? Yes! But I did not react upon it though I did feel like stating it out so that I could enlighten them of the fact but then thought against it. Still, I am troubled by my reaction. Will be back to write more after I deliberate on this.

Meanwhile, I had a flash of optimism which I must admit has been more rare than a blue moon for a long time now. As human beings, I understand that we are not entitled to happiness and this is only right. We may not even deserve it but then I suddenly realized that we can be deserving of it. And the way to work towards being deserving of happiness is obvious: to do our sincere best to be good and deserving human beings.