dreary = wrong

If your morals make you dreary, depend on it, they are wrong.

Robert Louis Stevenson, novelist, essayist, and poet (1850-1894)

Now there's a thought for you!

Granted, I think it's a dangerous thought for someone trying to talk himself out of doing the right thing. . . . but it's a freeing thought for someone chained to a deadening sense of duty; it's an ennobling thought for someone facing trying times.

Dreary sacrifice or courageous over-the-top gift?

Dreary attendance or breathless assignation?

Dreary shouldering of a burden or joyful embrace and carrying off of a prize?

We get to choose. Somehow. And yes, yes, yes: I recognize that I am dealing here more with motive rather than a so-called moral "content." Morality is not the same thing as rules.