PRAISE TO HONOR

To the best of my recollection, the first time I discovered the word honor was when reading the fifth of the Bible's Ten Commandments. This one tells us;
"Thou shalt honor thy father and thy mother.

If we look around us today, how many children honor their fathers and mothers? What a shame!
Perhaps if they had read the end of the verse, they would have changed their minds. The end of the verse that nobody seems to know is: "That your days may be prolonged".

What's so hard about fulfilling this commandment? And yet we don't keep it. Here, I'm going to find out what advantages this word has to offer, and how we can apply it.

Right now, what comes to mind is the expression used in court when addressing the judge. It's called "Your Honor".

Who doesn't want to be associated with this wonderful word?  It's certainly a big word, but oh so rich, so virtuous. It's beautiful, and at the same time it can be frightening when disrespected.

This word fills us with pride when we say to others: "I have the honor of presenting you my son who has passed his baccalaureate", for example. Honor thus becomes a feeling that enlarges us, even glorifies us. So why don't we respect it?

I'm off to see what all my wise predecessors had to say about honor, so I can dress up my writing and make it more respectable.

Many will tell you that honor is worth more than money. That's what the English say about the French. The French will tell them sarcastically that we're always looking for what we lack. All the more so as the French have a rather tenacious proverb: "L'honneur perdu ne se retrouve plus" ("Lost honor is never found again").

Nelson Mandela is the man who said that honor belongs to those who never abandon the truth. This same Mandela said something I find sympathetic: "To be the father of a nation is a great honor, but to be the father of a family is a greater joy.

And love, in all this, how does it live with honor? Corneille, for his part, found that love is only a pleasure, whereas honor is a duty.

And what happens to the less fortunate in all this? Albert Camus, in his wisdom, came up with a satisfying answer: "Honor is the last wealth of the poor. How can we fail to appreciate such a virtue?