Recently, I stood in the kitchen at work grumbling to myself about the lack of courtesy displayed by the unknown person who had emptied the coffee pot and not started another. Everything needed to brew a fresh pot was on the counter in plain sight and easy reach, yet the pot was empty. In fact, I mused, the fault didn’t belong entirely to the last person to visit the coffee pot - any of several people could have noticed the coffee level was getting low and brewed more. So why was I brewing another pot? I had already drunk my single cup of coffee for the day. If the people still drinking coffee couldn’t be bothered to brew another pot for themselves, why was I bothering to do so? Was it a matter of courtesy or of honor? What’s the difference?
Courtesy is an act you do for someone else, simply because you can. It’s “the nice thing to do.” Aside from the happy feeling that comes from doing something nice for someone, you receive little or no benefit from an act of courtesy. Honor is what causes you to do the act – even when you’d rather not.
The next evening, my Rhetoric professor was trying to make a point about metaphors. Since the concept was still on my mind, I was amused when she asked us to use metaphors to define “honor.” Here’s what I wrote that night:
Honor is…
• brewing a new pot of coffee when the current pot is low – and you’ve already had your cup
• walking to an inconvenient trash can
• doing those things you said you would do – without being reminded
• taking a telephone message and then delivering it
• doing “not my job” when it needs doing
Can you list some examples?
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2 comments:
Here's another example of honorable conduct for me, which I often miss the mark on: doing the above, and then keeping quiet about it -- not going around working it into the conversation like, "Hmmm, as I was washing all the dishes this morning, I....." Sometimes the work for me is that simple and that tough.
That's one of the hardest parts for me, too. I don't necesssarily want praise for the "good stuff" I've done - in fact, praise typically embarasses me - but I do like for others to know...
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