As humans, we are incurably social. Everything we do is situated within the context of relationships and interactions. It is within this context that loyalty becomes a highly relevant virtue. Every marriage, friendship, team, army etc cannot thrive in the presence of disloyalty. Unfortunately, the world today tends to treat disloyalty as the norm and loyalty as the exception. And that is closely connected to the way we define success and honour. It is such that everything that matters is what we see, whatever is not seen does not count for much. That is why you see people investing so much in their faรงade - cars, houses, certificates, money, power...and they will do anything to save their faces and deny their wrongs!
It doesn’t matter how desperately you think you need to save your face and reputation in the present, you create much more problems for your future than you could ever solve if you are disloyal. As far as I am concerned, there is nothing wrong with being wrong, what is wrong is not admitting it when you are wrong. It is completely pardonable to err, but to pretend like nothing ever went wrong is what is inexcusable. If a man falls, it is wrong for him to stay down like nothing can be done. He needs to get up, deal with the issues and get going. But what we often see in today’s society is that people get caught up in errors – in short, they fall – and they pick themselves up, shake off the dust and pretend like nothing ever happened! Such men will always stop short of their ultimate destination, never reaching their greatest heights because one day, the prints they left in the sands of time will be discovered – and how lethal such discoveries are.
Just two comparative examples: Tiger Woods was for 5 years the World’s No. 1 in golf until his marital disloyalty was discovered, mostly blown open by the many women he was involved with. In one year, the man slipped down 4 places and his entire family, let alone his wife could not help him. Dr. Ben Carson, the famous neurosurgeon, was once accused of extramarital affair by a strange woman. It was going to be a scandal because the woman claimed that she and Ben had a love affair but Ben’s wife came out to say it can’t be true; and that saved Ben. The difference between the two men: LOYALTY!
More to come…
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