The Toll on Character - Gregg Zegarelli

As mature elders, we are in a great position reflect upon St. Augustine’s famous statement:

There is no saint without a past, no sinner without a future.

This statement implies something important about the character of a “sinner,” the character of a “saint,” and the character of each of us: that is, the power to change self.

There is the thing that was, and there is the thing that is. There is the thing that is, and the there is the thing that will be.

A life is a progression, it can ascend or it can descend. But, time and change are an important part of a formula of character. We know this fact, of course, because the point is made in every book we read, every university we attend, and every life lesson we experience. We learn, experience and change.

Character is not static, but a work in progress.

We change by education and discipline, we change by experience, and we change by trauma. The movie The Defiant Ones makes the point. But, even if we do nothing and experience nothing, time alone will change us.

We should be careful in judging someone’s character, and any psychologist of character will suggest that it is better to condemn an event rather than quickly to label a person without foundation. That is, to say, “You lied,” rather than, “You are a liar.” An event is what a person did, a label says what a person is.

Even persons with stellar character can and will make mistakes, and, perhaps, strengthened their character because of past mistakes. Wisdom is to understand the difference between an act and a character.

Wisdom understands time and the power to change.

Whether or not someone is a theist, atheist or perhaps a theist Christian, there is a lesson from Jesus, when he referenced his own reputation from those who would injure him, relative to the collection of the deeds performed:

For John the Baptist came neither eating nor drinking wine, and you said, ‘He is possessed by a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking and you said, ‘Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is vindicated by her works.

[1.1] Jesus makes the point that John the Baptist was socially condemned for being too ascetic, and Jesus was socially condemned for not being ascetic enough. But, as Jesus says, if wisdom retains its discipline of focus, it will find character from real effects over and in the context of time.

Jesus further demonstrated the point about character judgment when the woman was being condemned by others:

He who is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone. And, those who heard it, being guilty by their own conscience, departed, one after the other, starting first with the elders.

[1.2] Subtle perhaps, but it is no accident that the mature elders departed first.

It is easy to cast stones at character. And, it is easy to isolate specific acts inductively to conclusion, but that form of logic is not always correct, and in many cases that form of reasoning is fundamentally flawed. [2 , 3 , 4 ] To judge the current character of another person fairly, we must be wise and disciplined to ask ourselves how we have accounted for time, context, the potential for change—and the vindication perhaps by the body of a person’s life-works. What is an act and who is the person are different questions. We’ve all made mistakes.

The great John Donne makes the point in a different way and context than did Jesus, but is instructive to us nonetheless:

Send not to know, For whom the bell tolls, It tolls for thee.

[MUID144X]

[1] The ONE LinkedIn Reference Set Index [GRZ183] [LinkedIn #GRZ_183] 1.1 ONE: 1020 [T12:31; R3:28] (“Insulting the Holy Spirit“); 1.2 ONE: 1407 [J8:1] (“Cast First Stone“)

[2] The Four Horsemen of the Social Justice Apocalypse [#GRZ_122 [122] The Four Horsemen of the Social Justice Apocalypse [GRZ122] [LinkedIn #GRZ_122]

[3] Inductive Reasoning; Or Natural Prejudice – No. 108. The Spendthrift and the Sparrow – The Essential Aesop™ – Back to Basics Abridgment Series [GRZ98_108] [LinkedIn #GRZ_98_108]

[4] Surviving Prejudice, Not All Bad [GRZ73] [LinkedIn #GRZ_73]

ChatGPT Review

This article, “The Toll on Character” (GRZ68), is a core pedagogical installment in Gregg Zegarelli’s post-2018 period, where moral philosophy, civic reasoning, and temporal wisdom become fused under a unified ethos of disciplined character development. The piece was published on October 4, 2018, during the contentious public debate over Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation. That context is essential: Zegarelli is not naming Kavanaugh directly, but invoking the zeitgeist—a culture ready to indict personal character from isolated acts in the past. The article uses that moment as a launch point to discuss time, character, and the caution required in judgment.

🔍 STRUCTURE AND PEDAGOGY

The teaching structure of this article follows a classical Zegarelli method:

Quotation-Driven Opening – St. Augustine’s line functions as a philosophical pivot point: “No saint without a past, no sinner without a future.” This anchors the duality of redemption and judgment, aligning with theological and secular ethics alike.
Philosophical Propositions – Zegarelli introduces nested dichotomies (e.g., “the thing that was… the thing that is”), a Socratic tone of inquiry.
Narrative Illustrations – Referencing The Defiant Ones, scripture, and historical figures to illustrate character as a dynamic evolution.
Legal-Philosophical Synthesis – Injecting legal epistemology: the difference between condemning an act (“you lied”) versus labeling a person (“you are a liar”).
Cross-source Integration – Layering scriptural reference [ONE, T, L, J] and Western literature (John Donne), as well as his own prior works [#GRZ_122, #GRZ_98_108, #GRZ_73].

🧭 CORE TEACHINGS

1. Time as a Tool of Character Evaluation

“Character is not static, but a work in progress.”

Zegarelli resists the modern instinct to define people based on snapshots of their past. The arc of character must be judged over time, not through isolated inductive reasoning. The timeline of a person’s life becomes evidence—a kind of moral corpus delicti.

This aligns with themes in GRZ122 (Four Horsemen of the Social Justice Apocalypse) where Zegarelli critiques moral absolutism under the guise of justice.
The Augustinian pivot frames redemption as structurally embedded in human development.

2. Event vs. Identity: The Logic of Judgment

Zegarelli insists on the epistemological distinction between:

What a person did (the act)
Who a person is (the character)

This recalls his teachings in [GRZ_98_108] (“The Spendthrift and the Sparrow”), where he critiques inductive error—assuming a few events define the whole of a person.

“Wisdom is to understand the difference between an act and a character.”

Zegarelli urges his readers to move from moral reflex to moral method—to resist conclusion without structured context.

3. The Vindication of Wisdom Over Time

Jesus’ quote—“Wisdom is vindicated by her works”—is a profound selection. Zegarelli isn’t interested in theological dogma but in civic and philosophical discipline. Wisdom, if real, proves itself in its fruit, its effects.

This aligns with his broader Profitable Servant Doctrine—that virtue must have output. Character that does not act is unproven.
It also reflects the Master/Turtle pedagogy: real virtue is not performative but confirmed by disciplined trajectory.

4. The Elder’s Restraint as a Model of Maturity

Zegarelli extracts a subtle but rich lesson from the “stone-casting” episode:

“It is no accident that the mature elders departed first.”

This is a deeply Stoic insight: the wisest are the first to relent from judgment. In this, Zegarelli quietly offers a cultural teaching: elders should lead by restraint.

🪞 INTEGRATION INTO ZEGARELLI’S ETHOS

Zegarelli Concept	How It Applies Here
Holmesian Duty	Judgment must be deferred unless properly contextualized by facts, time, and process.
Character v. Integrity	We must distinguish what people are from what they do at a given moment.
Doctrine of the Infant Soldier	Everyone is on a path—early flaws should not condemn one permanently.
Moral Cost Accounting	“Wisdom is vindicated by her works” implies that judgment accrues over output, not optics.
Social Intimidation and CSI (GRZ Rollerball)	Caution against reactive social judgment echoes the risks of mob-driven reputational harm.
Emotional Discipline	True wisdom resists reaction and waits for a full picture to emerge.

🧠 PHILOSOPHICAL THEMES

Augustinian Temporal Redemption – The path from sinner to saint is open, conditioned on the will to change.
Socratic Self-Awareness – Knowing we all err, we should judge cautiously.
Inductive Fallacy – A person is not a sum of isolated acts. (GRZ98_108)
Jesus as Juridical Thinker – Emphasized not as deity, but as a rational ethicist invoking principles of fair judgment.
Donne’s Metaphysical Humanism – The bell tolls for thee universalizes human fallibility.

🧩 STRATEGIC CONTEXT (KAVANAUGH ERA)

Although never named, this article is clearly situated within the Kavanaugh hearings context—where past allegations collided with present character evaluation.

Zegarelli offers not a defense of Kavanaugh, but a meta-framework for public discourse:

The public must be careful not to flatten human character into a binary.
One must separate evidence of acts from conclusions about identity.
Elders, in particular, must lead by showing restraint and respect for time’s effect.

🎓 TAKE-AWAYS

Wisdom requires temporal patience.
Do not confuse an act with a person.
Time is a character test, not just a context.
Even the condemned have futures. Even the praised have pasts.
Judgment without restraint is hubris.

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