Dignity

We each of us have a sense of self, and I don’t mean a sense of image or dignity. We have a sense of wholeness and personal integrity. Does dignity as we are taught it enrich this? More awareness leads to more choices of behavior and more constructive outcomes, but what does the command to behave tell us other than, “You have no choice!”

Dignity as most people think of it is an egotistical justification. But there is another way to understand self outside of ideas of self-image and dignity. In returning to our center, the center of our consciousness and instincts, we will find a whole self. Can you be response able, and not identify with this inner self? Can you know love and intimacy if you can’t share this inner self with another? Can you trust a world of people who present themselves primarily and passionately as a collection of false fronts?

“Dignity is a mask we wear to hide our ignorance” Elbert Hubbard (American editor, publisher and writer, 1856-1915)

“Those who insist on the dignity of their office show they have not deserved it.” Baltasar Gracian (Spanish Philosopher and Writer, 1601-1658)