November 04th, 2020

​Integrity
Someone asked me to write about integrity.  The thing is I feel totally weird doing so.  I do reckon integrity is totally necessary.  It needs to be an integral part of my life.  I guess it only really matters if I esteem fairness and honesty.  If so, integrity is needed, or the other is useless.
I did read a couple of things on it I really like.  Jackson Brown Jr. said “Live so that when your children think of fairness, caring, and integrity, they think of you.”  That is bottom line stuff to me.  Kids are great at letting the cat out of the bag.  They can make public something I would prefer was not.
The other thing I really like is something Denis Waitley said. “A life lived with integrity - even if it lacks the trappings of fame and fortune is a shining star in whose light others may follow in the years to come.”  Why I really like that is it addresses me.  I may never know fame or fortune, but I can be well acquainted with integrity.  The more integrity I have, the more likely I am to attract those of like mind.  It matters not if I am famous.  I can be a local hero.  The memory of me can live on – and it can be a good memory.
Wikipedia defines integrity as follows.  “Integrity is the practice of being honest and showing a consistent and uncompromising adherence to strong moral and ethical principles and values.”  The word that stands out to me there is consistent.  Integrity to me is not one of those things that can be turned off and on.  It matters not if integrity is at 90%.  It will be seen as “off” in my life if it is not seen at 100%.
I am not a fan of Oprah Winfrey but something she said rings true to me, “Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody's going to know whether you did it or not.”  To me I either have integrity or I do not.  It is not determined by lights, camera, action.  It can not be brought out and put away again.  It is there all the time.  It determines actions.
Integrity cannot be consistently faked.  If I spend a short time with someone, I can be duped, but the longer I spend with them the clearer it becomes.  The same applies to me.  I either have it or I don’t.
But there is good news.  It is never too late to get it.  But it, more than most things, is tested with time.  It is certain I will have opportunity to act as I have in the past.  It is what is most important to me that counts.
Integrity would be easier to write about if had always been present.  It has become more important to me in recent times.  I always wanted others to act that way towards me, but could not guarantee I would act that way towards another.  But, for me, it matters.