In search of character

“...I didn’t hear my cell phone...I didn’t have credit in my cell phone to call you...The buses were on strike...I fell asleep…blah, blah, blah”

You know, I’ve lived here for 2 years now. Not really a long time, but long enough to get to know the culture a little bit more (especially now that I can understand just about everything). And……I am shocked to say that I have been stood up 2 times since I’ve lived here. When I say stood up, I’m talking someone makes plans with me, and I don’t even get a phone call. This is something that is completely shocking to me because it has never happened to me before in my life until I moved here.

The other day, I was talking with one of my friends and I asked him if he had ever had any character education. He said he had no idea what I was talking about, but was interested.

What I’m talking about here are the core values that help develop persons into caring, respectful, responsible people who make choices based on what’s right, rather than what’s easy. I’m going to talk about two values that I think apply to the being stood up situation.

One of the basic pillars of a good character is trustworthiness.

What does that mean?
A person that is trustworthy is someone that keeps their promises and is a person of their word. They are reliable and follow through on commitments. They’re honest. They keep secrets and never betray a confidence or a trust. They have integrity and do not cave in to temptation. They are also loyal when loyalty is appropriate.

Another core value or basic pillar of good character is respect.

A person is a respectful person if they treat other people the way they want to be treated, if they are considerate of other people and treat them with civility, courtesy, and dignity. They accept personal differences and work to solve problems without violence. They also never intentionally ridicule, embarrass, or hurt other people.

I know that no one is perfect, I’m far from it, but I think everyone should have some type of character education.

For the record, I never made plans again with the two people that stood me up again.

If you’re interested, I can write about the other pillars of good character next time. Also, I would like to hear some of the excuses that other people have given you.

Te mando besos,
Jennifer