I.51 — The First Undertaking

I undertake not to make the avoidable wound.

Harm is friction set down in another life. Some of it cannot be helped: two wants meet and one must give, a truth lands hard because there is no soft way left to carry it. This undertaking is not about that kind. It is about the wound that could have been left unmade, the sharp word thrown because it felt good in the mouth, the corner cut because no one was watching, the small cruelty spent to win an argument that never needed winning.

Look at where avoidable harm actually comes from. Not from malice, mostly. From carelessness, a hand moving too fast to notice what it knocks over. From appetite, wanting something enough to stop checking what it costs someone else. From the wish to win, a grip on being right, translated into a blow. None of these require a bad person. They require an unwatched hand.

Try it for one day. Notice the small avoidable wounds before they land, the ones that would have happened without looking. Most of them, seen a half second early, simply do not happen.