A True Gentleman

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The True Gentleman is the man whose conduct proceeds from good will and an acute sense of propriety, and whose self-control is equal to all emergencies; who does not make the poor man conscious of his poverty, the obscure man of his obscurity, or any man of his inferiority or deformity; who is himself humbled if necessity compels him to humble another; who does not flatter wealth, cringe before power, or boast of his own possessions or achievements; who speaks with frankness but always with sincerity and sympathy; whose deed follows his word; who thinks of the rights and feelings of others, rather than his own; and who appears well in any company, a man with whom honor is sacred and virtue safe."

John Walter Wayland (Virginia 1899)


I find paragraphs, or snippets of a longer piece of old, and sometimes new wisdom and save them. From time to time I'll work them into a sermon or just read over them to myself.
I find they're useful as a measuring stick.

I am fortunate to have a family which seemed to have the preceding virtues instinctively ingrained in their personalities. Both the men and the women I must say. Not all the time of coarse. But mostly. Probably most people of a certain age can lay claim to that. And I'm sure many people today learn the same values.

But too often I see younger people who seem to be devolving instead of the other way around. I think I need to adjust my spectacles a bit. I need to consider more on the good in the world, rather than the bad, because it is really amazing all the good that goes about quietly, unnoticed for the most part.

I mean that we can choose what we focus on, the good or the bad. That in large part determines what our own outlook is.

Our lives are totally of our own choosing after we reach the age when we can make choices. We can't help the circumstances of our birth, but we can, if we think at all rationally, try to make the best decisions we can, instead of just taking things as they come and then complaining about them.

You're not the product of a broken home, a devastated economy, a world in the upheaval of war, a minority group, a family of drunkards or a poverty-ridden neighborhood. You are the product of your own thinking processes, and whatever you're thinking about today is the cornerstone of your tomorrow.
Take control of your thoughts and your future. Determine that you will have a better tomorrow.

Then you won't have to live in the kudzu.. ..unless you choose to.