Integrity

As my wife and I sat down to sipping a cup of Joe from Gloria Jean’s at the Bridgewater Commons Mall, we began to discuss the question of integrity.

Think of how often you are called upon to make a quick choice about whether or not you can trust a person. It happens every day in innumerable situations and contexts. How are you to deal with the quote that you’ve just been given from the salesman from that siding contractor? What about that relative, co-worker or acquaintance who is always shading the truth or holding back on information? Or the elected official whose conduct you are trying to evaluate, but who seems to be just a little too slick?

Priscille and I had begun discussing the topic earlier that morning, as we did our early morning pacing around the inside perimeters of the Mall’s three floors. It happens that the person which we were discussing has had a long history of withholding information, reinventing the past, and holding others responsible for actions of her/his own doing.

If you were the person in question, you would have wanted to have my wife on your side because, in the presence of even the slightest iota of doubt, she will always cut you a great deal of slack: “What about this?” she will remind me. Or, “You don’t really know what happened, because you don’t have all of the facts.” Such an approach to evaluating personal integrity is sound. I’m lucky to be married to such a person.

I, on the other hand, will exhibit a lot of patience with people, but not when I begin to suspect that they are trying to roll me – again!

If, at the end of the day, a person – or a company – consistently exhibits behavior patterns inconsistent with the facts, then that person’s or that company’s integrity begins to fracture. All of us have to make such evaluations constantly.

Just think of what’s going on at the national level right now. We have to decide which person will become President of this country: Clinton, Obama, or McCain? Who do you really believe and trust? The answer to that question is irrevocably tied to a personal evaluation of each candidate’s integrity.