Integrity

Integrity matters.  Maybe not to some people, to some it may seem like a quaint and antiquated idea.  But to a lot of us it still matters, and we will base our decisions and our lives around it.

I see our kids being fed a diet of information that seems to be exclusive of integrity.  Everything is all good as long as you make the money, or your famous, or you get whatever you want for nothing.  What happened to work?  What happened to making your own way?  What happened to believing that you were in charge of your own pursuit of happiness?


Until recently I believed that there was integrity in all of us.  But I was proven wrong, and for whatever reason this is really disturbing to me.  I know that we all are living within a circumstance that we have created but I could not fathom the distance between my values and those of others.  I do now.

I have seen what people will do when faced with a choice that may be difficult, or affect the life they are living.  I've seen that some people don't want challenge, struggle, or personal growth.  Some people want to live in the glass house they have built, and simply can't believe it when a stone shatters it.  They will make choices that fly in the face of the morals and ethics they espouse every day.  Burying their head in the sand and hoping for the best, instead of taking command of their own life and moving forward with dignity.

I shouldn't judge them, but I am.  And maybe that is what I am struggling with.  That there are people on this planet that would sacrifice every friend, cohort, and compatriot the second thing start to be difficult.  And to try to drag those same people into that swirling void of morality with them. 

Maybe my expectations are to high, I don't know.  But I think I have the right to have expectations of people that come into my life.  Or I have the right to not have those people in my life.

Which is the current situation I am in.  I am leaving my work.  Not because of the money, or benefits, or certain persons I work with.  But because of a complete and utter lack of what I define as Integrity.  Because the upper level people in this organization show a compete and utter lack of respect, and caring, for the amazing people that are working for them. 

I may be delusional about this.  The world may have moved on.  But I don't think so.  I don't think it's unreasonable in life to expect the best out of others.  And I believe that the best exists within all of us.  We just have to make sure we are always in a place to let it come out.