At the suggestion of my neighbour, I watched through the entirety of a show called “The Good Place.” This is quite the feat as I don’t remember the last time I finished a TV series (aside from the thousandth repeat of Paw Patrol).

However, the series hooked me for many reasons (many of them Theological and Philosophical) and ended on a perfect note. In fact, everyone who has watched the show make the same comment about the ending.

Being the book nerd I am, I went ahead and ordered the philosophy book the writer based the show on (“What We Owe to Each Other” by T.M. Scanlon) and will gleefully dive into it, muddling through each page.

One thing I can’t help think about, though, is that very question:

What do we owe to each other?

Humans haven’t really changed much over the past hundred thousand years. Our technology has changed, the landscape is different and our knowledge base has increased by magnitudes, but we still act pretty much the same.

We still repeat the same mistakes.

People continue to be jerk face jerks.

We continuously lie to each other and ourselves.

So what do we owe? Why bother helping anybody out?

It almost feels like we shouldn’t, yet we have this desire to do so anyway. We’re wary of motives, but we want to believe in the best of each individual.

It’s the reason Canadians will jump out of their own cars and help push someone else’s car that is stuck in the snow. Or why we have collections at work when somebody has a baby… or when someone passes away.

I know the final answer won’t come after a book (although books hold the answers to so many questions), but I do know this invisible, subconscious contract we have with each other is the only reason we’re here today.