Cheap

I have had two run-ins with the things I fight against back-to-back, and I'm sitting quiet and still, trying to hold the fort, trying to wrap my mind around it.  How is it possible that people sell themselves so cheaply, take all the beauty and potential I see everyday and throw it away for such nothingness, such absolute ashes and dust?  I know that so many of them have been hurt, maybe can't see clearly, but to trade infinity, wonder, joy for despair, brokenness, emptiness...  It causes me pain.  Every single time.  I just talked to one who may not come back because of choices made, consequences earned, and while I'm sure somebody will say that this is the cause-and-effect, the physics of life, if I thought it would lead to a reclamation, if I thought it would lead to a change, I think I could have some peace with it.  Lately, though, all I see is wrong choices leading to choices still more dark, people running down paths laced with thorns that cut to the bone while they laugh and call it "pleasure" and "fun."  I don't know what to do for them.  I don't know what to do for myself.  I can teach literature.  I can teach grammar.  How do you teach someone the value of their own soul?