I can’t say everything I’d like to say because everything about this is hidden through a veil of lies and legality and betrayal. But if I could just say one thing about all of it, it would be this: All actions have consequences. Be careful of whom you might affect with yours.

Sometimes an action can have positive consequences. Someone praises a piece of art and the creator goes on to take art classes to perfect and hone their passion. Others see their new creation and are inspired to become artists themselves. This is a beautiful consequence of a very simple action, one we could all take part in.

Sometimes an action is meant to be harmful. Maybe someone feels slighted by another person, so they spread rumors or lies about them. The slighted person can’t know how those lies will grow and distort, possibly affecting more people than they originally intended to harm, but the harm is done all the same.

Sometimes an action is done with the best of intentions, but causes harm as a byproduct. Someone sees a young child running into traffic and they do the most logical thing: take the child by the arm to stop it. But the child has brittle bone disease and the action causes the child’s arm to break. Now that person, who only meant to help, is facing charges of abuse and assault by the child’s parents. Even if the law were to find them in the right, the person receives threatening messages from people who don’t know the full story–or don’t care to know the full story. That person lives with the fact that they broke a child’s arm–even though it was never their intent. That person begins to wonder: Should I ever have stopped that child from running into traffic in the first place?

We all must live with the consequences of our actions. Hopefully those consequences are positive. And I hope that one negative consequence following an action done with the best of intentions isn’t enough to ruin a life spent lifting others towards the light. But it seems it is and that, my friends, is tragedy in its truest form.

Mind how you go.