Integrity is one of the things a human can truly call their own and choose to apply to every situation. I'm reminded of a quote by Viktor Frankl.
“So live as if you were living already for the second time and as if you had acted the first time as wrongly as you are about to act now!”
VF was a fellow who survived the Nazi Death camps in WWII in case you didn't know, although I'm sure you probably do.
Integrity is not conditional upon other factors, one choses to have it or chooses not to. I'm the choose to have it man.
Your comment is a bit humbling and I'm not sure if the ledger of G-dog is a clean one. I've had chaos in life and have had to find it within myself to make things happen that have left some scars. I've not been a criminal though, much the opposite in fact, and mostly I can still look at myself in the mirror. So, my ledger has two or three columns I suppose. What is certain is that I've learned many things, have evaluated, adapted, adjusted, overcome ad ultimately moved forward maybe just a little better than I was before.
If I had a ledger it would be as you describe though:
full of tattered and inked pages with splotchy edges and scribbled margins all saying the same thing
Cut, torn, battered, bruised and blood stained also; a record of the moments of my life - good, bad, bad-but-good and so on. I like to think of those moments as threads, many threads of colour and light, of shades and darkness, torn, frayed and unravelled...But threads nonetheless. It's those threads I weave into life and the tapestry I leave behind. The ledger, well maybe someone will see it, take it and wrap it about them. Or not...When I'm gone it'll not matter.
What matters is now; how I act, react and how I treat others, and myself. So integrity happens.
I'd wrap myself in your ledger. And yes, I am familiar with Victor Frankl and have read his Man's Search for Meaning. It's funny, but the last time I read that was probably 7 years ago, when I was going through something rather intolerable, and the thing I remember standing out above all else was this concept of hope. He talked about how the human frame can tolerate just about anything, as long as they have hope for a better tomorrow. Once that is gone, they give up. The Edema gets them, or the fleas, or the scabies. But they die. Because the conditions are too intolerable in the camp for them to persist any longer without some meaning of some kind.
This is a good point, the hope thing. He's right of course, hope is a great motivator and can bring one the ability for patience, resilience, consistently, work-ethic and an attitude that moves one towards a successful resolution or result.
A good point indeed littlescribe.
I'm hoping hive moons right now. How materialistic of me.
Oh God, you're SOOOO materialistic. I can't STAND it! LOL
Shameful huh?