Moral Puzzles (by Eugene Matusov)

Here I want to present you with a collection of moral stories I wrote — moral puzzles to think about. In each story, characters make good and bad moral decisions and actions. Would you agree with them or disagree? Why? I wonder what you think about each of the stories — write it down in your comments. Also, please rate how much you like each story by giving them stars. Thanks!

When I was a little boy, I was read Leo Tolstoy’s moral story “The plum seed” for little children — you can read here, it was translated from Russian as “The plum stone.” As a child, I did not like this moral story — something bothered me about it. I didn’t know what. Later, I realized what was bothered me and I re-wrote Tolstoy’s moral lesson, humiliating the little boy Vanya, into a moral dilemma — you can read it here: “The plum seeds.” I’ve discovered that I like more moral dilemmas, which involve difficult questions that different people may answer differently, rather than moral lessons with one “right” answer. The other moral dilemmas suddenly “poured out” from me — I just rushed to write them down. I wrote my moral dilemma for people of all ages: little children, big children, tweens, teens, young adults, adults, mature adults, and seniors.

There are many different stories I wrote here. I expect that some of them you will like, but some you won’t. Different people might like different stories. I hope there are some stories for you. Please provide your rating and feedback so the other readers and I know which stories you like and you don’t and why.

Eugene Matusov, Philadelphia, PA, USA; December, 25th 2020