Sacred Honor

   Years ago in my youth while reading the Declaration of Independence the last two words “Sacred Honor” jumped out at me like a lightening bolt and why would the founders of America, place that on an equal footing of importance with their very lives and fortunes. It was at that time certain that I realized I didn’t know what they meant, nor if I even possessed such a thing as my own sacred honor and how and where does one acquire such a personally valued thing.

   I set out on a quest to see if others questioned could explain what sacred honor meant to them and if they understood it in the same way, with the same degree of importance as our founders did. What I got was almost as varied as snow flakes from those I questioned. From some with strong religious faith, it was meant the same as the swearing of “so help me God’ in a court of law or pledge while still others thought of it as the honor of trust or responsibility bestowed on them by overall society that they viewed as sacred.

   As I grew older I became convinced that they were talking about truth, honesty and commitment not so much as it related to overall society but to ones own accumulated over time, “objective convictions” regarding their own individual selves. (Being true to ones, own self) living up to their own personal standards as established over time, completely absent what might be called self deceit. This I concluded by reading their own personal writings.

   The difference between public and personal where the personal was of paramount value that was not necessarily in tandem with public perceptions like the difference between a patriot or sunshine patriot that is the sacred honor they placed on par with life and/or fortune which can only be found within.

   Woe be-it onto the Americans of today that have no Sacred Honor on par with our founding fathers, but wallow only in the perceptions of and self deceit of faux public honors. GAP