(#5918) Death before dishonor

      How does one live their life? With some degree of intelligence, courage, and happiness? Or does one grovel before a bully and let him decide if they live or die? Two very dire scenarios within which most of us reside. Being afraid to die is the catalyst that carries the most weight when trying to figure out how to live. Most all of us know that living is special even when it is difficult and filled with disappointment. There is something extraordinary in surviving to fight another day but that only applies to those who have made the decision to fight. Those who are just scrambling to survive at all costs are not doing themselves any favors. Instead they are trading being alive for a humiliating shame.
     When I hear the term death before dishonor it kindles in me a hero type who at the end of his personal rope had remained defiant in the face of brutish cruelty. Like the very young 21 year old American revolutionary patriot Nathan Hale who uttered these final words before his death: "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country." America was founded upon the hearts and minds of patriots who stood up to dishonor with a bravery that inspires and elevates our species to a higher order. Dishonor is the temporary way out for those who haven't learnt that their life is as great as all lives past, present, and future. Living with dishonor does not stay one's life it just lengthens it in a puddle of misery and despair.
     Death before dishonor is how the brave live and life without those courageous souls is a reminder that the worst of us may rule the world but the world is no place for honor to grow and abound. Deep within all of us is a fire to do what is better and best for ourselves and those around us. We each must find our core and then build out from it the world we want to live in. Will that reality have tyrants and brutes leading the way while we bend our knee to them? Or will our reality be strong in courage where no person of honor is ever asked to die for something dishonorable. We, each one of us has the individual power to be our best form so the time is upon us to have that conversation with ourselves.