September 11
It is not by a single deed that a person becomes just, but by doing what is just, and often. As the builder becomes a builder by building, so you become what you repeatedly do.
Nicomachean Ethics (freely rendered)
Listening mode
It is not by a single deed that a person becomes just, but by doing what is just, and often. As the builder becomes a builder by building, so you become what you repeatedly do.
Every exception has its own reason, usually a good one. You were tired when you put off the reply. The appointment really was inconvenient. This time the small embellishment was kinder than the precise account. If you examine each case on its own, it mostly holds up.
Only you rarely examine the series. For you, each decision remains a single case, embedded in its circumstances. Someone who sees you more often, by contrast, sees above all the repetition. They are already expecting the postponed reply before you even have a reason for it.
This works in the other direction too. When you listen to someone although you would rather have left, you may put it down to the evening, the mood or the person. That you are doing it for the third time easily escapes you. In both cases your picture of yourself lags behind, because it is made of intentions and not of frequencies.
At some point someone asks whether you are a person who always listens first. You want to object, out of modesty or out of habit, and you can't think of a counterexample.
