Integrity

Integrity is the state of being whole and undivided.  In a social/ethical sense it means that one is not divided in word and deed, that what he says is what he believes.

Taken by my 2 year old granddaughter, Emma.

Integrity is a man-made concept.  My body is an example of integrity only in the grossest sense.  I appear to be undivided on the surface, all contained in my skin, my "person."  But a closer look reveals that I am at best a leaky bucket.  I have my cells, but I am also a vast, complex ecosystem of micro-flora and fauna.  I am living within a cloud of personal particles and bacteria, and I leave a pat of me behind where ever I go.  The very elements, atoms and molecules that make up my body are constantly being exchanged for new ones.  I am a cloud, a semi-stable, persistent whirlpool of stuff that I ate, drank or inhaled.

I doubt I can ever be integral.  My mind swirls with new ideas, hypotheses, and opinions with the influx of daily data from my experiences.  Though there is some continuity - I still recognize myself as me - I must say that my thought flow in a river that is never the same from day to day.  What I think today, I may doubt tomorrow.  Such inconsistency does not qualify me as one having integrity.

I hope that when someone wiser looks at what I am... a mosaic of many thoughts and ideas, a collection of experiences and actions, he or she might see an integrity that I have missed because I was looking far too closely.

As fuzzy, cloudy, and messy as I am, I am still me... just me.