A vintage napkin from 2001. You know, I have been drawing napkins for over 12 years now! Had a few years break in there there but I started in 1998.

This is hard to accept, isn’t it. I am not sure I do accept it. Or maybe I accept it in most OTHER people, but not me. I mean, come on. My conscience is tied to what others might think of me?
 
An easy test might be, what would you do if those people weren’t around to judge you (or at least you are anticipating that they are judging you). I am not talking about bad things, I am talking about judgements within civil society. For example, if you are around vegetarians all the time, you might feel your conscience telling you not to eat meat at a restaurant you all go to together, that it is bad to do so. But what if you are on vacation and they aren’t with you? Would your conscience be telling you the exact same thing or would it tell you something slightly (or not so slightly) different?
 
That’s really the question, isn’t it. It’s knowing oneself, what is conscience, what is getting along, what is an absolute boundary, no matter what. It’s something to think about.
 
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
 
“Conscience is, in most people, an anticipation of the opinion of others.” – Jeremy Taylor, 1613-1667, English Clergyman