Honor

Honor is defined as esteem paid to worth and is associated with reverence, dignity, distinction, reputation, good name and a good sense of what is right, just, and true. The key part to honor is having respect for others and for yourself, the two must act together because with out both you have nothing. I strongly believe that reputation is hard to gain and easily lost. A speaker once said, “Every day thousands of planes fly somewhere and there is never any news or headlines about a successful landing, however when one crashes it is all over the news.” This fact reminds me of honor in that you must maintain honor because one infraction will result in the forfeiture of ones honor and in a sense will be headlines, and if not to others definitely oneself.

“Honor is like a rugged island without a shore, once you have left it, you cannot return.” Honor is something in which is not obtained and sustained easily. One must have patience and study to become a person of integrity and goodwill. Honor is an everyday thing; obstacles trying to deter one from being honorable lay in life’s everyday path. Perseverance is a key to honor; one must fight the constant impeding objects in order to maintain the highest level of honor. An island is often looked at as something isolated and secluded yet has a certain mystique about it. Honor is much like an island in this sense.

A test of all will power living with honor will not always be the most popular route and possibly could cause short- term alienation. Honor must come from inside and be unable to be swayed by minor factors. The shore is a place, which represents compromise. Honor has no room for compromising in no way is it a partial way of life, it cannot be turned off and on when desired. People often see honor as something malleable yet it is not one cannot pretend to be honorable in certain environments and not in others. An absolute way of life, honor is like a pass or fail course, there is no in between. The shore is a place of change, for instance if one stays on the shore he/she will drown at high tide, the shore is not an option. The last part of the quote from Satires is the most important of all the aspects. Honor does not have three strikes and you’re out or nine lives policy, everybody is given one chance and if that person chooses to invalidate their honor it is lost. Honor does not have a series of choices. I see honor much in the way of a quote by well known American author Gore Vidal, “One is sorry one could not have taken both branches of the road. But we were not allotted multiple selves.”

I firmly believe in living with the highest level of honor, which in a way is the only degree of honor. In the present day many people have relaxed their standards thinking that lying once or twice will not matter because no one will find out. This common mentality is what is hurting society; people have lost the strong belief of self-respect, which is a major part in honor. Honor should always be in one’s conscience and should be reflected through their actions. It is a distinct characteristic in a person that separates that person from a group. Honor must be the center of what one’s moral revolves around and is the capstone of a person.