Do you solemnly swear?

Loyalty is less a virtue than a stand-in for love. Less innocently, it elevates patriotism, punishes the un-conforming and beats the drum for our ceremonies of war.

Love, actually

The virtues are an absence before they are a presence. Courage is the absence of fear, innocence of lust, humility of pride. And what is this purifying fecundity, this mothering absence? Love, actually.

The cult in culture

An organization’s culture is its ego. Since ego is utterly obdurate, well-intended efforts to change the culture go nowhere. Whistleblowers are professionally slain while conformity is elevated to a virtue and called loyalty.

The Virgil effect

Life befriends and guides generous men. Tightwads fall into holes they’ve dug themselves.

Integrity

While conceding that he is a lousy husband, the man says he is nevertheless a wonderful father. I ask him if he is honest. He says, “Sometimes.”

There’s a bit of a silence between us. Integrity is not sometimes.