A Moral Dilemma: The Case of the See-Through Leggings

Did I do the right thing or am I actually a monster?

Have you ever experienced this — you arrive to a place and notice a person, and then just because of how things transpire that person unknowingly becomes a main character in your day?

I call this The Ingram Effect because once a friend and I made a big trip to Sorrento, Italy and on the plane from Heathrow we noticed this British family of four (two adults, two obviously embarrassed teenagers, at least one of those around-the-neck passport holders). Then we saw them in line for the bus into town, and then again in line to check into the very same hotel we’d booked. That’s where we overheard their last name — Ingram — so it was easy nudge each other and whisper, “It’s the Ingrams,” when we also ran into them at a pizza place and eating ice cream on a scenic overlook.¹

The Ingram Effect occurs on smaller, less international levels all the time, and it happened to me this week at the gym. However, what started as a casual encounter turned into a gnawing philosophical question that maybe you can help me with: What do we owe each other as human beings?