I Didn’t Do Anything Right Either

I usually look for something fast-paced, something that takes me away from real life for a while — espionage, suspense, stakes high enough to distract me from my own.

Today, I watched a spy thriller on Amazon Prime in which the protagonist works at GCHQ — the UK’s intelligence and cyber agency. Her job, like many such jobs cannot discuss official matters outside GCHQ perimeter (for obvious reasons)

But one day, she reads something. A document that hints at an impending war which could still be stopped.

Torn between loyalty to her country and her conscience, she chooses the latter. She shares the document — not to hurt her country, but to save countless lives. She gets caught. 

One of her colleagues, someone who knew her well, goes to see her after the charges were made on her. 

And in that short, quiet moment, something gets said that has stayed with me. 

When her friend (colleague) breaks down, she gently says, "You didn’t do anything wrong." And her friend replies, through tears: "I didn’t do anything right either."

That line hit me hard......

So much so that I paused the film and just sat there.

How many times have we all felt proud of not doing wrong?
We follow the rules. We don’t cheat. We mind our business. We’re decent people.

But is that enough?

In this endless rat race, we spend our lives trying not to step on anyone's toes. We stay in our lanes. We keep our heads down. We avoid conflict. We try not to harm.
But somewhere in that effort, we also stop reaching out. We stop speaking up.
We start living passively.

And in doing so, we become complicit in a quieter way.
Not by what we do.
But by all that we don’t.

Some might argue that, “Isn’t not doing bad the same as doing good?”

I would just say, "the world is suffering not because of the noise of bad people, but the silence of the good ones."