Time and Integrity

    People are all born, high and low, with these two things and only these two things:  Time and integrity.  It's up to us how we use our time and how we preserve our integrity.  I was never told that in so many words.  I learned by example.  Every day when I was growing up was filled by my elders with an effort at something useful  which I was expected, no, allowed, to participate in to the limit of my ability.  I was given to understand by those around me that what I would learn to be integrity consisted mainly of doing the right thing even when no one was looking.  My voice, my sensibilities, were the real arbiter. The final arbiter.   There was no reference to my immortal soul.  Just to my self.  In this connection I wasn't expected to be anything.  Industry and integrity were merely basic conditions of life.  I don't think that's unique. As a matter of fact, I think it's the glue that makes our society what it is.
    Here's an example:  Most fiction doesn't work unless we all share and believe in the basic definitions of honesty.  Simple right and wrong.  Of course, that means that most people who do wrong, damned sure are aware they're doing evil. Try to follow me here.  One question in philosophy has been:  Do we all see colors in the same way. Is red, to me,  red to you and blue and so on. In the end that answer has to be, yes.  They are the same.  If they weren't,  pastels wouldn't work.  It's inescapable that all basic human concepts have to follow that model.  At least,  I haven't found an exception. I don't think there is any exception to the concepts of right and wrong.  I know my kids won't allow me one.
    Good for them.  In the end, that's the idea isn't it and, in the end, we all do agree on right and wrong. We dissemble when we feel we are wrong and sadly, condescend when we know we are right.
    The hard-eyed guys in the red ties are the exception not the rule.  Sometimes they are glaring exceptions but they couldn't exist without the froth our time and integrity produce. In the end, some of the things we see as evil are just evidence of our overall good.  Sometimes they are just evil.  It's an interesting thought that when you embrace a faith in God you must also admit the existence of the Devil.  It's pretty much right there in black and white.  Read the fine print.
    Maybe the world isn't as good and forgiving as I always end up thinking it is but I'm sixty-five years old and to quote an old friend,  "I've been everywhere but the electric chair and you ain't showin me nuthin."
    I see the time I have been granted as a tremendous gift and given my upbringing, there is no way I can think I've used it to best advantage.  Most people of my acquaintance feel exactly that same way.  I also hope my integrity isn't in the tatters my kids seem to think. That's pretty cool.  I always smile at the pleasure they get from correcting the Old Man and from time to time they have corrected my thought.  That's pretty cool.  I usually think, ' Yeah, I thought of that' but it's a real pleasure to think, 'Ya know I never thought of it that way.'  I guess that's a blessing of maturity. I actually enjoy changing my mind and there is still time.