"The Insufficiency of Honesty"

Is Integrity a process, outcome or something else?

I chose this question to write about because it is the first thing that came to mind after reading this short story. I believe that integrity is a process. I think this because I believe that everyone starts out with a clean slate, and you have a choice to have integrity or not, like the author says, it does not mean honesty. People have the misconception that if you are honest that you also carry integrity. They are totally two different things. Just by telling the truth does not mean that you believe it is the truth, that is where the integrity comes into play. So therefore, this is why I believe that it is a process. I think that there are three steps. Step one is believing in what comes out of your mouth, step two is to be honest about what you are going to say or do and step three is integrity, it being something that you believe in, its the truth and it feels good to say or do it!

Half of the time people only have one of the steps correct, they tell the truth about something, yet they do not believe in what they are saying, they are simply justifying the truth and not thinking anything about integrity. It is basically knowing the difference between right and wrong and being able to following the process of the three steps to earn integrity. I like the example that Cater uses when referring to a man who cheats on his wife thirty-five years prior in there marriage and when he is on his death bed and decides that he wants to come clean and tell her the truth about what he did in the past. This man clearly had no integrity from the beginning. To be able to carry on for many years after into his marriage with dishonesty he never respected his wife from the moment that he cheated, even if he did not want to hurt her, if anything he left her with a huge burden after his death and great uncertainty about there marriage.

Lastly, I would just like to add that since integrity is a process, I believe that you earn it by believing in yourself. You have to know the difference between right and wrong before you can earn integrity and even honesty in some respects. I also believe in karma, it think that it plays a huge role in integrity, what comes around goes around and if you know that you are saying or doing something that is not right it is going to come back to you in some way, shape or form. Being honest is only going to get you so far in life before you have to answer to questions that make question your own personal beliefs.