in·teg·ri·ty
inˈteɡrədē/
noun
- 1.the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness."he is known to be a man of integrity"
- 2.the state of being whole and undivided."upholding territorial integrity and national sovereignty"
synonyms: unity, unification, coherence, cohesion, togetherness, solidarity
"the integrity of the federation"
And I think I mean it both ways. There are so many kinds of virtues, that one could never get tired of them. This also means that one could never perfect all of them either, so a little leniency is in order. I also like the idea of being "whole and undivided". It seems like conserving the energy it takes to be two separate persons could be better used being one person who tries her best.
Of course, focusing on one thing is always a problem for me. I am too interested in too many things. I would like to think it was a Renaissance problem, but I think it's more of an attention problem. But is there any less virtue in multiples? Not under this system? A struggle, to be sure. Not a given.
It's one thing to have a philosophical slogan, and another to implement it. That will be the real struggle, constructing exercises to strengthen integrity.
I like January to be the planning month, where I try on new routines and see what works, but now I'm moving past self-improvement as fixing faults, more towards building strength, much like a diet where you remove unhealthy foods, and then add in healthy ones.
I took the Martha Beck course "The Integrity Cleanse" for the 2nd time because it's literally about my word of the year. How are you going to ignore that? And it's a little different this time. I could focus a little better since I was not so wobbly with the tools this time, but I'm still having a hard time believing it's really possible to have your every communication and action in integrity.
Which is why I'll always have more exercises to do....
