Honor and Integrity are two qualities you can categorize as being intertwined with one another. While integrity remains staying true to your own sense of what is right and wrong, maintaining your reputation and such, honor could be seen as doing actions that would fulfill an agreement (specifically in application to defending my family’s honor).
The Tran Dynasty is my legacy, and the legacy my parents most obviously want me to leave behind. Having engaged in some active conversation this week, I can genuinely tell what pillars I need to maintain in order to continue my family’s honor:
1) Reject Communist Sentiments
2) Be Hard-Working People
3) Fulfill all sense of obligations to people
I was going to address Confucianism in a later blog post, but decided against it: one major component of Confucianism though remains embedded in this week’s moral: having a deep filial connection with your elders (not just specifically my parents, but older people I come into contact with during my lifespan).
My integrity was fulfilled in a variety of ways, namely by: a) not being late to work b) maintaining a respectful demeanor around friends, co-workers, and strangers c) resisting the slacking off at my job and maintaining an active lifestyle d) finalizing a birthday card (despite not going to the birthday dinner) e) resisting anger in times of stress f) avoiding spreading rumors in an effort to be a better person g) not losing a self of oneself amidst everything and h) fulfilling all promises.
I believe my integrity is maintained if I stay true to my own identity, which is pretty much an embedding of various moral traits I have channeled over the course of the year. My honor is maintained by doing various things that imitate my parent’s moral attributes.
1) Not flaking on Pho = Fulfilling an obligation of friendship
2) Buffalo Wild Wings = Fulfilling another obligation of friendship
3) Getting to know family: Having a Deep Filial Connection with my elders
4) Determination to make things right: Hard-Working
5) Q&A Parents: Having a Deep Filial Connection with my elders
6) Not Losing My Identity
7) Keeping all Promises = Fulfilling obligations in a relationship, friendship, etc.
8) Going to work = Being Hard Working
9) Rand Paul Revolution = Rejecting Communism
10) Preparing for School = Being Hard Working
In the end, the best way I can maintain integrity is to practice all the morals I have enhanced throughout the course of this year. I can practice honor by continuously getting to know my parents, and how they acquired the lifestyle/attributes they did. Applying that to my own life would make things turn full circle.
Applying the moral attributes to family gives the following family tree, which include from left to right the order of my siblings:
The End Result: I give myself a B+ for the week.
Next Week: Gratitude
