I wrote a story a couple of years ago titled “The Green Knight”. It was about honor and living up to one’s word. I started writing it three separate times and three ways I had to abandon it. The reason they didn’t work was the plausibility of the characters in the setting I placed them. They just didn’t work. The story was about true chivalrous honor. The story failed because I couldn’t find honor in our modern culture.
What is an honorable person like? A knight in our modern world is likely to be compared to our soldiers, our service people overseas, defending freedom in foreign lands. Yet, we argue over why we are there and for whose honor? If the people we are fighting for don’t appreciate our help, is it just to be there, honorable? That doesn’t take away from the individual soldiers and their personal code and ethic. But doesn’t the honorable person have to retain free will and choose the road of honor? Does the soldier not follow orders? Does that not make them honorable only in that the actions were performed from duty?
I think honor can only rest in the mind and actions of the individual whose motives lack agenda - the altruistic knight. Does such a person exist? I truly want to know. Show me the modern example of an honorable person.
Honor can be defined with fancy abstract words like integrity, accountability, and authenticity. Yet integrity has so many definitions. The integrity of the ship refers to its hull. The integrity in our common vernacular refers to one’s ability to discern right from wrong. Honor must be more than just integrity. What about accountability? The act of showing up and not just once but every time. Doing what you say you were going to do unwaveringly; that’s accountability. But it seems that if we don’t show up, then not only are we lacking in accountability but also integrity. How are these things connected?
Let me digress further into this Aristotelean logic (or is Socratic) and talk about authenticity - one’s truth. Authenticity, speaks to intention. If I intend to show up, then I speak that truth. If I intend not to show up but say I will, that lacks authenticity. If I intend not to show up and communicate the fact that I am not showing up, I keep my authenticity and my integrity, although I may be lacking in accountability, except that I didn’t make any promises. Authenticity then links to integrity. How does accountability and authenticity diverge, is it through intention? I may intend to show up and state that I will show up, but if something comes up, preventing me from making it happen, then it lacks accountability, but I was authentic all along because I intended to do it, but my integrity is hurt.
Is it possible to be accountable but not authentic?
Okay, so maybe integrity is like the basin in a fountain in the backyard. If I make a promise that I intend to keep but for whatever reason I don’t keep that promise, then my integrity breaches and water out leaks of that water feature. And it will keep leaking until I plug the hole. And maybe the only way to plug-it is by apologizing. And further, I have to show up the next 3 times in a row without fail, keeping all of my promises, all 3 times for the water to fill back up in the fountain. Maybe then integrity is how many holes I have, accountability is then how big my fountain is and honor is my intention to want to continue to make my fountain bigger and bigger.
The knights at Camelot, Joan of Arc, Robin Hood, all had big fountains and chose a life that intended to be honorable. They would sacrifice their own personal well being for the sake of their honor. Where does that exist today in our modern culture? I can think of Firefighters, Police Officers, and Teachers. There are others, everyone has the capacity, but in our modern civilization of capitalism and wealth and materialistic hoarding, and soccer mom’s it is hard to find the people willing to put themselves in front of harms way.
Where are our heroes?
Surely not politicians, surely not athletes?
Are people more afraid culturally now then 50, 75, or 100 years ago? Courage plays a role too, right? Someone that chooses to stay afraid, will not face their fear and instead choose to not show up even if they want to, intended to, or promised. The ones that are afraid but show up anyway are courageous and accountable and are full of integrity. Admitting the fear out loud also makes them authentic and vulnerable (oh, shit now vulnerability and courage have snuck into this definition!).
So, the hero has to have integrity, accountability, courage, and authenticity - I’m not convinced if heroes need to be authentic as part of the definition. What else do we need to define a hero? I suppose humility. There’s nothing worse than a hero that no one wants to be around because they are a dick; although, I suppose that exists. I suppose a person could be full of integrity, be accountable and courageous but not very humble. Maybe heroes don’t need humility after all.
Disney movies give examples of the hero as humble, compassionate, authentic, accountable, strong, and have huge fountains of integrity. This is a person I want to meet. Well, to be honest, it is somebody I want my son to meet - but do they exist?
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