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April 09, 2004 Living With Honor I want to talk about a little thing, a small, ancient ideal that no one currently seems to understand or, as the children say, "get". It is called honor. Now… Webster's New World Dictionary's definition is long-winded and myriad, to say the least, but basically the word breaks down to this- high regard, great respect given, and or, a keen sense of right and wrong; integrity. These two definitions, to me, capture the pure essence of the word, which inevitably leads me to my first asinine question.Where has honor gone? I believe in words such as honor, integrity, intelligence, discipline, and most important humility. The problem is that a great majority of humans crawling across the beaten and burned skin of this earth do not have even the slightest inkling of the depth and profundity of the complicated and misused words described above. Honor. It is in fact a beautiful word. Now I am not talking the kind of blind "honor" you sometimes find in the military, where their idea of honor is to follow orders, without question. Nor am I referring to the movie ideal of honor: grandiose and unattainable. I am talking specifically about the little kinds of honor, those tiny points in your life that play out every single day. Points where one may act with honor, or without. For example… holding a door open for someone... anyone, showing a modicum of humility when you are wrong (as we all are from time to time), and even shame, taking responsibility for your actions and the consequences caused by these, living with a sense that there is such a thing as right and wrong, and a right way and wrong way to treat people; or consequently how you yourself are treated. For if you do not believe that there is no such thing as right or wrong, then you will never accept responsibility for anything. Some areas in this claustrophobic mess called life are muddy and gray, yes, but given the same point, some are not. Being, quite simply, right or wrong. (Of course, I am not talking about right or wrong as it pertains to the bible, or the Koran, or the Seven Sacred Rites, but the right and wrong that we know, intrinsically as human beings. Not some coveted gift handed down to us from imagined deities, but the instinctual ideals each of us possess at the moment of birth… I repeat, not God-given, but inherently human.) To live with honor is to elevate your own personal standards, your own level of strength and discipline and effort. To live with honor is to respect those who deserve respect, and to tolerate those who do not. To live with honor is to live with humility, which, unfortunately, is the greatest attribute a human can strive for, but on the same token, seems to be the very last thing everyone strives for. To live with honor is a part of the Way of the Warrior. We are fallible, messy creatures, you and I. But to live with honor means to transcend your physical boundaries. Again, not in some banal religious or spiritual way, but in a way that elevates not only your mind, but also your heart to a plane that is far beyond anything you and I have ever experienced. I am still fighting for this… this kind of honor, every day and every hour and every minute of my life. And I will be fighting, until the day I die. [Add Comment] 0 Comments |
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