Ethical Compass

As someone whose spent years navigating waters, prior to GPS, I thought it might be enlightening to review the similarities between navigating life and navigating travels.  We often refer to moral or ethical compasses.  There are many similarities to using a moral compass and a magnetic one.  Both rely on a definition of Truth.  One defined by the rotation of the earth, the other defined by the Highest Power.  The connection between the Truth and the compass is corrupted by forces called “Variation and Deviation”.   For the traveler, Variation is caused because the magnetic north pole moves constantly and is in a different spot than the True North Pole.  As you travel around the globe, the amount of variation changes due to simple trigonometry.  Moral compasses have this same variation feature: Abortions are repugnant to many while an acceptable form of birth control to many others.     Deviation is the bug bear of navigation.  On a boat it is caused by iron close to the compass.  It’s deviation that allows criminals to live with themselves and rationalize that they are still good people even though they do disgusting things.  The times we live in today remind me of a trip from Knife River  to Two Harbors when I could see we were progressing in a straight line, but my compass was swinging as much as 20 degrees either side of my real course.  The iron on the North Shore was causing the compass to swing in a sort of combination of variation and deviation.  Our leaders have this same ability to “deviate” our compasses.