Character

I've established my first rule while dealing with this grieving process of an unknown length, which is that I must act with Character. Weather I am being lazy, tired, missing Mike, crying, in pain, or in that "I could give a rat's ass" attitude I will act with Character. I know I will mess up, but when you mess up and you have strong Character, you say you messed up and apologize. So this is one of the things

The concept of character can imply a variety of attributes including the existence or lack of virtues such as integrity, courage, fortitude, honesty, and loyalty, or of good behaviors or habits. Thank you wikipedia.
Integrity- as a concept has to do with perceived consistency of actions; do what you say you will do
Courage- is the ability to confront fear in the face of pain, danger, uncertainty or intimidation
Fortitude- synonym for courage
Honesty- is speaking truth and creating trust in minds of others
Loyalty- is faithfulness or a devotion to a person or cause.


There are a couple things I know for sure. One of those is that if I had to list for you reasons I love Mike, his Character- the way he always did what was right, no matter how difficult or annoying or how far from what he really wanted to be doing is in the top 5. (Other 4 rounding out the 5? His optimism, they way he was able to deal with my attitude, his love of his family, his zest for life) He always did what he thought was right. Sure, he was crazy fun and always a good time, but he had such strong character that he was able to earn the respect of almost anyone.

I admire his commitment to character and I think its time to make a personal rule that I remember to exhibit strong character. Do the right thing. It is so often now people can be lazy, get out of work early, lie about what they did, act crazy rude just to be funny, etc. And, for me, it's time to begin to remember the character I used to have, the character Mike exhibited. I know I'm grieving and it's a process that can sometimes be ugly. But I belive I can still act with character.