My kids, when they were little, wanted to do a hundred things each day — because, in their minds, it was possible to spend the same time doing two completely different things.

It wasn’t, of course.  Invariably we had to make choices about what we wanted to do with our time — because the Truth was (and remains unfortunately):  Our Time is limited.

And Time once spent is spent.

Integrity works along the same lines.  Especially the way it works once spent.  Time cannot be re-invented.  It cannot be revisited (under our current rules of Physics) in a literal sense (looking at light from a distant star, one IS, in essence, looking back in time; but you’re not ‘re-visiting’ it as part of some giant Mulligan).

Everyone gets topped up with A Full Tank of Integrity when they ‘get here’ (provided they can get here).  Most people get through lives with their Integrity dinged a bit here and there but, ultimately, still 100% intact.  They haven’t cheated on a spouse or loved one.  They haven’t been cruel.  They haven’t lied & deceived & refused to tell the Truth ever.

They shuffle from this Mortal Coil ‘Whole’.  An Ethically ‘Made’ Person.

But dings are one thing.  Massive divots and gouges are something else entirely.  Politics, it’s understood, is a blood sport.  You don’t win by playing gently or, entirely ethically.  A person completely out of power is not a ‘person’ in this context.  It’s hard for anyone in that world to keep from gouged just by walking in the office door.

Or is it?

It would seem that a person with PRINCIPLES — if they stated those principles clearly, ran on those principles and won on them — then KEPT THEM SACRED — they would be more or less impervious to corruption.  Their Integrity would be almost impossible to destroy.

Except it’s so rarely the case.  Curious, no?

We grind our teeth in frustration at politicians because they always seem so willing to compromise — in all the wrong ways; they want to compromise their Integrity — and call it a thousand other names.

But once they’ve made that deal — and sold out even a shred of principle — they know it.  Inside, in their hearts, they KNOW their Integrity just vanished — a bubble so gossamer it’s gone before you even realize it was in danger.

You can try hard as you like to re-compose a bubble.  Your chances of success are zero, zero and less than zero.

Integrity is just as challenging to re-constitute.  Ever meet anyone with less than 100% of their Integrity?  Sure you have — they’re called assholes, schmucks, cheaters, liars, rapists, thieves, murderers, Traitors.  It’s one of those clubs you absolutely do not want to be a member of.

And then there are those who do…