What is honor in today's world?  What use is it in today's world?  I'm 38 and I feel young and old in one breath.  I feel young because I'm still active, thin and relevant to anything I want to participate in.  From video games to sex. LOL.

I feel old because honor is something no one I read about seems to have use for, let alone understand.

If you are like me I try to surround myself with people like myself.  Not clones, but those that share the same value system.  Honor is key.  I try to impart it on my seven year old son. 

So what is honor?  There are many useful definitions of honor but the honor I speak of revolves around personal integrity and reputation for dignity.  A person with honor is respected and esteemed for holding to conventional values.

When you play a game and cheat while no one notices, do you care?  If not, you have no use for honor.  It is a telling trait.  For those that have no honor can never be trusted. The person with no honor unconsciously has no trust for others.  Without honor you cannot appreciate the good from the bad. You can never truly appreciate winning over losing. You may earn more money but without honor those around you will only use you.  Your friendship to them will be pale shelter.

There is a reason for honor.  Self respect and dignity has a value beyond price. Without honor there is no legitimacy to your dignity.  It would be unrighteous dignity and anyone can see through it but you.  You would carry your honor like a badge that others will mock behind your back.

Honor starts young.  Without a sense of honor at an early age, a true appreciation and value for honor is lost and perhaps never to be gotten.

Sayings like, "An honest day's work." and "Blood from a stone" are useless it seems in today's world. 

We look at the youth in this twenty first century and know they only see the shortest distance between two points is a straight line.  This means if they cheat a video game to win, they get the win.  To them, rules are something that just gets in the way of winning. Somehow they feel rewarded for that win.  The rest of us laugh at them knowing the win they hold is only in their eyes.  We know they are the only person that sees the win.   It is easy to blame schools.  It is easy to blame parents.  Although I do agree a parent takes the brunt of the responsibility, even a good parent can be thwarted by today’s society and the temptation put upon children. That is why a parent’s job is so hard. To impart honor on a child is a noble cause.  To send a child into the world that has no value for honor is a tough tough task.  Because then they too know there are many vipers and snakes whom have no use for honor.

The human value system is a frail and failing cause. 

Pride is often mistaken for honor. They are not the same. In any event, when I see a man carrying his pride like a badge of honor, I see a person that may have nothing else but their self respect.  Even they think that their honor has value. They carry a chip on their shoulder.  If nothing else I can appreciate that they put value on something.  But pride is not honor.

I'm an idealist of course. I see honor eroding in our world.  I think every generation loses more and more honor.  We are constantly redefining words to suit our own purpose.  But one word that individuals with no values can ever redefine is "honor".