Searching for integrity, or is it a useless endeavor?

Bird Droppings September 9, 2026
Searching for integrity, or is it a useless endeavor?

“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe anything simply because many speak and rumor it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.” Buddha
I watch the news and pundits lauding their integrity and truthfulness as they command hundred-thousand-dollar speaking fees and first-class accommodations. Then I think of a Hindu holy man who sat for twenty-seven years with his arm stretched in honor of Vishnu, one of his Gods.
We in America say it’s the American way, and many will pay to see that star-struck speaker with little significance. I look back at that crazy holy man who, after all those years of piety, can no longer use his arm. A bird nested in his hand, and a faint smile came to his face because he had been of use.
Who do I respect there? In all honesty, it should not even be a question.
Over two thousand years ago, another holy man taught us to forgive our brothers. As their faith goes, he died for the sins of others so no one else would need to die. According to the writings that followed this faith, he was to be a blood sacrifice for all of humanity. He disdained wealth, war, injustice, and greed, yet today those very things can drive the faith that bears his name. How can we bastardize those founding concepts to the point where they are so far from where they came from?
“Character is higher than intellect.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
“If we are ever in doubt about what to do, it is a good rule to ask ourselves what we shall wish on the morrow that we had done.” — John Lubbock
“You can easily judge a man’s character by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.” — James D. Miles
Over the past two mornings, I’ve noticed things as I walked out to drive my route, chasing a sunrise. A partial moon and, today, a fingernail moon greeted me, glowing as I drove down the dark roads toward what I call the deer pasture.
Yesterday, an opossum scurried across the road, tail held high in defiance as it dashed to the other side. Only a few yards farther along, an eastern box turtle was sitting near the edge of the road, just looking. It was an odd time for a turtle to be out.
Later, as I pulled up to the stop sign, there was someone on a tiny Vespa scooter. Coincidentally, we both ended up at QuikTrip.
So, I wonder about these synchronistic events—each only a brief second of my day, but each has stuck with me. Was there meaning and significance, or would these events have happened even if I hadn’t witnessed them?
“I thank Thee first because I was never robbed before; second, because although they took my purse, they did not take my life; third, because although they took my all, it was not much; and fourth, because it was I who was robbed, and not I who robbed.” — Matthew Henry
“My country is the world, and my religion is to do good.” — Thomas Paine
“Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what’s right.” — Isaac Asimov
John Dewey refers to prior knowledge and experiences as a basis for education. We build that base and add to it, almost as if our prior understandings are the foundation for constructing all further understanding.
So, I argue that if someone lives with criticism, can they learn tolerance? If a child lives with hostility, will they ever be able to understand peace? If a child lives with ridicule, can they ever understand or know praise? Is it possible for a child who lives with shame ever to know forgiveness?
I loosely borrow from Dorothy Law Nolte’s “Children Learn What They Live.” As I ponder that aspect of prior understanding and look toward some of the politics of our society, I wonder how people learn to become so self-centered and greedy.
Years ago, in a speech to the United Nations, Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad argued that capitalism was in its death throes. I think about that older observation as I look at a society increasingly divided between enormous wealth and those struggling simply to get by. I look at Wall Street, which has always amazed me, and see how fortunes can be made by owning little more than paper and someone else’s desire to own that paper.
Many people talk and write about how our society is going downhill. As I watch and read, it is so often those driven by self-interest, anger, and division who are the loudest voices—and sometimes those who reap fortunes from gossip and innuendo.
For years, I have watched political arguments get reduced to competing versions of reality. Healthcare has been one example. Whenever we talk about taking benefits away, I wonder about the parents of severely ill children. I wonder about cancer survivors and families who depend on preventive care. Political arguments can make these things sound abstract, but they are not abstract to the people living them.
Too often, it comes down to people who don’t want to give up anything and see everyone else as a parasite. Sadly, we seem to be moving away from an understanding worldview toward one centered increasingly on self-interest.
“Dignity consists not in possessing honors, but in the consciousness that we deserve them.” — Aristotle
It has taken a long time to honor men and women who have shown bravery in combat. Some have waited years, even decades, to receive the recognition they deserved. I wonder why we so often delay such things. Why does it sometimes take so long to recognize courage, sacrifice, and integrity?
I wonder why I see what I see, and others see nothing.
Perhaps that is part of why I continue my early morning drives. A fingernail moon, an opossum crossing a dark road, a box turtle sitting quietly at the roadside, a stranger on a tiny scooter, a heron standing motionless beside the water—none of these things asks for my attention. Yet, somehow, they receive it.
I ponder daily why I can relate better to a Hindu holy man holding his arm aloft than to a politician or former politician getting paid a small fortune to chatter about a version of reality only they see.
Maybe integrity isn’t something we find by searching for people who proclaim they have it. Perhaps it is found in what someone does when there is no audience, no speaking fee, no camera, and nothing to be gained.
Perhaps searching for integrity is not a useless endeavor after all.
It leaves me with my daily credo: Please keep all in harm’s way on your mind and in your heart.
Namaste.
My family and friends, I do not say this lightly,
Mitakuye Oyasin
(We are all related)
bird