Guilt, an interesting emotion.....

So I got on the sky train this morning to go to work and didn’t pay, yeah I know…. but I really did not have any choice. All of the ticket booths in the station were not working properly and were cash only, really in this day and age…. cash, seriously! So as I sit here the overwhelming feeling of guilt has made me start writing, so is it guilt for getting a free ride? Or is the fear of getting caught doing something wrong?

Let’s look at both – Guilt, we feel guilty when we eat something we know is bad for us, we feel guilty when we do something we know we shouldn’t do, we feel guilty when we say something we know we shouldn’t have said. So is guilt really just fear? We could say that we fear reprisal if we did all of the things above?

The two defined…(thanks Wikipedia!)

Guilt is the state of being responsible for the commission of an offense. It is also a cognitive or an emotional experience that occurs when a person realizes or believes—accurately or not—that he or she has violated a moral standard, and bears significant responsibility for that violation.

Fear is a distressing negative sensation induced by a perceived threat. It is a basic survival mechanism occurring in response to a specific stimulus, such as pain or the threat of danger.

So the above is obviously not all encompassing and by no means have I intended to explain the two emotions in great detail…but threat of danger…these sky train cops are pretty scary!

What do I say, well I know that I worried for the entire ride to work this morning that one of those burly police officers were going to come onto the train and ask me for my ticket! I didn’t even have an old one that I could show them! J

What would I do? What would I say? What if they take me to jail!? Ok so they are not that mean…. but I have seen them pull people off the train! Oh the anxiety!

So to answer the question, my guilt quickly turned to fear, fear of getting caught doing something I know is wrong. So why the fear now and not the guilt, because its  something I feel that I can completely justify.  And I did…Besides Translink makes enough money, people do it all the time, I pay everyday, and never take free rides, just this once because their machines didn’t work?

So justified my guilt, turning into fear of reprisal and began to wait….4 stops left, 3 stops left, 1 stop left….I am almost there…..

So how did my adventure end, well I made it! Still feeling like I did something wrong, so from guilt to fear, to guilt again… enough to motivate me to go buy a full fare ticket……and pay for the free ride that in the end I just couldn’t take!

Till next time happy chatting!