Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Integrity

When you disagree with someone, can you listen, really listen to them? Can you seek, and find, the path by which they start at the evidence, at the circumstances which are not in question, and arrive at their present position? Can you hold it in your mind, without scorn or derision, and see it, really see it the way they do? Can you hold that path and your own in your mind, together, and wipe away the past? Can you see what the differences are between them, and what they aren't? And can you, based on that moment alone, based on those differences alone, weigh them against the evidence, and rejoice in a conclusion you did not enter with, a Learning, a Growth? Or admit in sheepish humility that you do not know the answer? If you can't, then you know Integrity. If you know that you can't, that is what it means to know Integrity. The next time you disagree with someone, remember it, and practice your growth.