Sunday Musings
david t. wilson
July 4, 2010
Beloved,
Have you been watching the World Cup? I’ve loved soccer – futbol – since I went to a soccer-power college in the late ‘60’s. I’ve watched a lot of the World Cup games, and the play has been beautiful. Mostly. One thing that has disappointed me has been not the play, but the acting. If you watched it at all, you know what I mean – the dives when the player is barely touched, the writhing pain which miraculously go away when the official doesn’t believe it, and the haranguing of the officials to try to get unearned free kicks. Oh, sure. Some will say “that’s just the game,” but I don’t buy that. There was even one goal scored on Argentina that was caught on TV, but missed by the ref, and disallowed. The Argentine goalie later admitted that the ball had gone in the goal, but he was proud that he had “sold it” to the ref by playing on and pretending it hadn’t.
I like watching golf on TV, too. In golf, none of that would have happened. Not that the players are more closely watched, but because in golf you pretty much referee yourself. If you do something wrong, and no one notices, you are expected to call it on yourself. And professional golfers do -- even if it costs them the match.
Now, why do I mention that? One simple word – integrity. It’s a word we don’t use a lot, or think much about, anymore. Integrity. Integrity is doing the right thing … just because it’s the right thing. Not because anyone is watching. Not because it will earn you anything. Not because you are afraid you might get caught. It is doing the right thing simply because it is the right thing.
I talk about integrity with my classes at FIU. It seems to be a quaint concept to most of today’s kids. I tell them how, when I used to teach at a Christian university, I would allow the students to mark their own exams. I trusted them to not change any answers. Then I ask my FIU students if I could do that with them. You can imagine the laughter.
But isn’t that a shame? My FIU students knew that they would change answers, when I wasn’t watching, to pad their grades. They knew that it was wrong, but they knew that they would do it. What they did not want to admit, however, was that it was because of a lack of integrity. To them it was just taking advantage of an opportunity. In truth, it is dishonest cheating.
Integrity. It’s what you do in the dark when no one is watching. If you’ve got it, you live a life where people know that they can trust you. If you don’t? Well …
How about it? Do you have integrity? Can people trust you? Don’t you want them to? Think about it.
Blessings!
David, ybiC
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