The Honor System

A nearby farmer loaded 26 bales of mulch hay onto my Toyota Tacoma pick-up truck. Wow! She really know how to stack hay! She did this while she as milking her handful of sweet brown Jersey cows. Every Monday, i pick up a half gallon of raw milk from her. While i'm there, i may get a dozen eggs, a pound of butter, or some cream for whipping. It's all stored in a refrigerator along with a cash box in a tiny shed, so i can go there any time of the day or night. Everyone pays on the honor system.

If you look closely, you see that we all depend on the honor system. 99.9% of our interpersonal transactions with each other are indeed honorable. We don't take what isn't freely offered. We pay our share.

We feel right when we do the right thing, when we act honorably. Our conscience bothers us when we act dishonorably. We may dismiss our little cheat with a shrug of the shoulders, and think, "They'll never notice." But WE notice. We know of our own dishonesty. We are our own judges. We charge ourselves with dishonorable conduct. No one else may ever judge us for that little, tiny cheat. But if you were dying a few hours later, would you feel absolved? Or would you feel regret and remorse?

Acting honorably puts our mind at ease.