Are you an honest person?

Honesty is a noble virtue that is to be admired. It is something that is often unpopular and often ignored as not important yet it possesses great value.  I recently had a dream and it was about this very character trait so I thought I would share it with you.

As dreams go, this one was filmed back in the early days of the 1940’s.  I was placed in an old Midwest town on a warm day where I found myself walking along with a group of young boys about the age of ten years who were playing around and challenging each other when one boy said, I am hungry---I want a piece of bread.  The other boys chimed in and said, well, you can’t have it.  The scenario continues with this one boy continually chanting that I want a piece of bread and the others telling him that he can’t have it.   All I was doing was listening to the scene and observing the boys not knowing the story nor understanding the chant when we came upon a small country store that had an outside stand that was filled will many types of bread bins filled with sliced bread.  The boys eyed the bread and looked at each other then turned to the boy who had chanted earlier and said—oh, go ahead and get your slice of bread. 

Shortly thereafter, the owner of the store came outside and started to speak to me.  I asked him about the stand with all the sliced bread and he began to tell me about it.  You see, he said, I know how hungry the young boys get around here so I began to offer them a slice of bread for 5 cents a slice.  It is an honor system that if they want a slice, they have to place 5 cents in the basket.  Some of them are honest and noble and adhere to my rules while others feel that it is their right to simply help themselves to one slice of bread at their whim. 

You would be amazed at how many people believe that it is their right to help themselves to just one slice.  Honesty is a virtue that few possess but many are faced with on a daily basis. When I awoke from my dream, it still lingered with me.

I began to think about this simple story and realized how I, too, have not always been honest even though I believe I am a very righteous person.   You see when I go to the super market and they have a display on assorted candy and nuts, I often put my hand in and take one to taste.  I don’t seem to give it any thought and in fact, I think that it is my right to sample the merchandise.  So I guess this dream that I experienced was attempting to let me see the correlation between the two scenarios as it nudged me to change my ways.

I have always taken pride in being an honest person yet my actions have said otherwise.  Oh, yes, I realize that this is a small issue and in the big scheme of things is probably not very important.  But please understand—it always starts with the small things and only eventually moves into the larger issues or situations as our habits get farther out of hand. 

This was a wake up call for me and just maybe it is one for you too.  In either case, I share this story with you as a simple reminder that honesty does matter and it, indeed, is a noble virtue that we all should posses but few adhere to.  What are your thoughts on this topic? 


 Joan Marie Ambrose

Author, Creative Writer, Motivational Speaker