NUMBER 16 Honorable or what

I am an honorable man I think for the most part, but I have, thus far, been dishonorable also many times throughout my 64 years. I wonder which friend or family member or other of my loved ones will claim the same.

None of us, I think, want to remember our dishonorable deeds, but even the most dishonorable persons sometime exhibit, surprisingly, high degrees of honorable acts from time to time. So, which of your deeds do you think will define you in the end, and, how will you be remembered?

Seldom are we long remembered if we are just Good ole Boys, but we are, often long remembered for our evil or dishonorable deeds.

When I use the term EVIL I do not imply a spiritual force whom our creator has given free reign throughout the world to tempt and to lead people into damnation and hell. I use the term simply because I like the word as a descriptive word to imply invalid thinking in much the same way as I use the word DISHONORABLE or any other word to imply invalid thinking.

I think that all persons are at times dishonorable. Some are more dishonorable than others, but we all fall into that character from time to time. Unfortunately many poor souls fined themselves in this character so often that their reputation continually precedes them. Even if they work hard to become honorable, they seem never to be able to shake off or rid themselves of that old reputation.

Now the bible says that "as a man thinketh so is he". That can be either broadly or narrowly interpreted, so whose interpretation do you rely on?

If you steal a penny are you just as dishonorable as one who steals a fortune? Don't we all envy others sometimes at least just a little, and don't we all lust just a little? I think that people that are in denial of these human conditions are also liars, at least just a little. The bible teaches us not to judge one another, but don't we all find ourselves judging others, at least in our hearts? And when we judge but claim that we don't judge, are we not also liars and hypocrites?

Which of these dishonorable ways of life puts us beneath our fellows? Is a glass of milk tainted if only a pinch of dung is mixed up in it, or must it take the whole piece of dung to taint the milk before you say no to drinking it?

I admit that I am a tainted man but to some people I am still palatable, and I am truly thankful that I'm not full of shit, at least for now.

Finton