Moral decisions create fork-in-the-road moments in our lives every single day. Depending on the decision we make, our actions have a positive or negative effect on ourselves and others: whether or not we tell our boss the truth that we blew it, whether or not we envy someone else’s success, whether we choose to be generous with those in need, whether we sleep with our girlfriend or boyfriend, or choose to have an abortion.

After settling into my tech-savvy dining booth at JFK international airport, I heard “breaking news” in stereo.

News blaring–flat screens scattered throughout the terminal announced CNN had obtained a tape of a conversation between Donald Trump and his attorney Michael Cohen discussing how they planned to buy the rights to a Playboy model’s story of an alleged affair.

I looked around the terminal, scanning gates and bars filled with TVs. No one paid attention. Not a single person seemed to be concerned that evidence had surfaced indicting an American president of an extramarital affair, with a Playmate, which he tried to cover up by paying her off. Irrespective of political affiliations, this news should grab our attention.

Not a head turned.

Constant Crisis

Why? Perhaps it’s because we’ve become so accustomed to public crises. Just this week I came across the vicious ethnic cleansing of Myanmar’s Rohingya, the massacre of six American women and three children in Mexico, an impudent religious leader hurling racial insults, impeachment hearings in DC, and a college admission scandal.

If I’m honest, I’m kind of overloaded, even numb to these atrocities.

Every time we pick up our phones, we’re hit with another calamity or scandal. And just when we think we can’t process any more, a personal crisis hits.

When Crisis Hits Home

I picked up the phone and said hello.

“Jonathan, this is Amy.”[i] I hadn’t spoken to my old girlfriend since she’d moved to Alaska a decade ago.

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