The Beauty of Words

“But if it be a sin to covet honour, I am the most offending soul alive”

(Henry V by William Shakespeare)

Honour is a value in demise.

There was a time when people took pride in being honourable; and being perceived as dishonourable was worse than having one’s daughter vaginalising with some scoundrel. 

Honour is many times blended with ego and vanity, which tempers the whole concept of the value. 

For example: using women’s virginity as a means of control, political strategy and leverage, under the flag of honour is deceptive. Using adultery as an excuse to commit murder and then call it “crime of honour” is antithetic. To be publicly known as honourable and then; behind curtains; plot against others, abuse, rape and murder people is to mask an ill character. To be known as righteous and then secretly covet your neighbours’ possessions and happiness is disdainful; if one is to sin then sin properly “but if it be a sin to covet honour, I am the most offending soul alive”. 

Honour should be in perfect symbiosis with earnestness, loyalty, consistency and valour.

Earnestness: honesty and seriousness in character is vital to the concept of honour. One must be true to oneself first and then true to others. By being truthful I mean maintaining a certain purity of the soul within an imperfect world such as ours.

Loyalty: the purest form of commitment. This value goes beyond fidelity; it surpasses petty details of existence; it survives all the vicissitudes of irrationality and intellectual weaknesses. Being loyal to someone, to a family, to a honourable cause is extremely difficult and anyone succeeding in this undertaking is worthy of respect.

Consistency: come whatever it may, one’s character does not sway. When one’s character, thoughts, words and actions are consistent we know we are before a honourable person. The issue is to find a being that actually succeeds in conjugating all the above.

Valour: great courage is needed to want, to choose, to be honest, loyal and consistent when the world does nothing but to tempt us into subversion. 

I admire honourable beings and I try to emulate them. There are times, even, when I covet that feature in them and whenever I think of atoning for that sin, I recite “but if it be a sin to covet honour, I am the most offending soul alive” and atonement becomes a distant memory. 

The Verb is Beautiful and a simple quote can reproduce wonders,

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