“Be loyal to those who are not present, and you will gain the respect of those who are.”
~Unknown
Loyalty is a fine and noble thing. It’s at the heart of love, because it looks after others first, it’s at the core of of success, because it requires self-discipline and thoughts of consequences, it’s at the foundation of building a better world, because it takes looking outside of ourselves and at the larger picture, and it’s at the soul of elegance, because it prevents us from saying things that are graceless and self-serving.
Loyalty is what demands that friends and family defend each other to one another and to outsiders, it encourages husbands and wives to talk things through rather than sharing private details with friends, and it asks employees to look for ways to make things better rather than tearing down the employer they’re being paid to build up. It reminds us to speak fondly, or at least objectively, rather than jumping into the fray, and it brings about resolution instead of breeding further contempt.
There are some that would say that loyalty has gone out of fashion, or that it’s a naive and antiquated idea in today’s world. After all, governments are untrustworthy, the nuclear family has broken down, corporations are greedy, and marriages fail. Then again, what are governments, families, corporations and marriages made of, if not for each one of us? How can we expect our institutions not to fail, if we fail our institutions? How can we expect to be trusted, if others hear us being flippant or disrespectful about those we love? Why would a prospective employer hire us if we speak ill of our current, or former employer, knowing they will be next?
This isn’t to say that there aren’t times we must speak up, or that we should let crimes go unpunished. It isn’t to say that the loyal opposition shouldn’t be alive and thriving. It’s just to say, that in our everyday lives, we have the opportunity to do something that is both small and grand by simply being loyal. When we ask ourselves what we can do to change the world in some small way, being loyal may just be the elegant thing.
{ 0 comments }
