What kind of person do you have respect for?

Loyalty.

Everybody wants to be perceived as smart. Smart people are dime a dozen. No matter how smart you are, there is always someone smarter. But loyalty is a field where you can totally dominate, and you don’t have to be born with anything special to do it.

A lot of people are willing to toss their friends and acquaintances under the bus, just to look cute or clever. Or to impress their peers. But that shows they never really cared. They placed themselves above all else.

Then there are the little resentments, the festering anger, the little scraps of contempt that people hold, and the first chance they get to express it, behind someone’s back, they do. It’s a lack of faith.

An instructive lesson in life came when I was in 2nd grade. There was a kid who was bullied for being overweight. I felt bad for him. I felt so bad, in fact, that I would come home from school and cry for him. Not everyday, of course, but it really bothered me. So one day I befriended him. I thought we were cool. I even invited him to sit with me and my friends, which was kind of a risk, considering everyone in my class hated him. And then, one day, I heard word that he had been talking about me behind my back. I was totally gobsmacked. That was the day I learned that just because someone may be unpopular, doesn’t mean that he or she is a misunderstood person of value. Suffering doesn’t always teach people to become better human beings. Good people aren’t always the ones whom we might think are “inspiring.” Not that they can’t be, it just doesn’t indicate anything one way or the other.

What is inspiring to me is the person who will remain true to you when nobody is looking. It is the person who will lift you up when everyone else is kicking.

One time, my mother told me:

“I love you so much that if you killed someone, I would help you hide the body.”

That, my friends, is true loyalty.

And that is unconditional love. Most people would call the cops. Or at least distance themselves — if anything, a fear of tainting evidence. They might even wonder if you might kill them. But a loyal person helps you hide the body first and asks questions later. That is the meaning of faith. It is believing the best in them. Your average friend now will drop you for sending the wrong virtue signals.

Don’t worry, I never needed to take my Mom up on that task. I asked my wife the same question. She agreed. I know I picked a good one.

My first wife I couldn’t trust to return library books.

Sad.