The Beginning

It must have been three times a day I'd hear about somebody's blog, and it was exactly the same number (three) that I couldn't talk about my own. Why? Because I was too lazy to get off my arse and make one. There's a lot of things I choose not to do for good reason (like bathe), but creating a blog is not on that list. To be honest, I don't know if its on the list or not, since making the list is one of those things I choose not to do, but should I ever make that list, I won't put blogging on it. Whatever. I'm going to start a blog.

But what to write about? Certainly not the importance of grammar and the irradication of fragment sentences (you're bound to read more than your fair share on this blog. My deepest and most sincere applogies to Mrs. Flaugher, my high school english teacher). Why don't I use this blog as a type of personal journal, full of my daily events and most intimate thoughts and opinions? Turns out these blog things are kind of public; besides, I'm much more comfortable telling you want I want you to think I think rather than my actual thoughts. There's too many people out there waiting to use your own words against you to ever supply them with the truth. You know what they say, "Loose lips sink ships"... but then again so do mines that just sit there and do nothing. So much for cliche's.

Most likely I'll end up writing about whatever comes to mind at the time, provided I take the time to keep this up. But this isn't a rambling. I will always strive to maintain a constant with this blog that I ask all readers to keep me accountible to. That constant: the title. PerspectiveIntegrity is just a squished-together version of two of the most important words in the english language. I tried IntegralPerspective, but even though the word "integral" is a variation of the word "integrity," it just doesn't mean the same thing. Sure, it may technically mean the same, but lets face it, the meaning of a word is only as good as the perspective of the person reading it. Next I tried IntegrityPerspective, but that just sounded stupid, especially when simply flipping the words provided a much better, and ultimately the chosen alternative, "PerspectiveIntegrity."

During a recent leadership seminar, integrity was defined as "saying, doing, and intending the same thing." That definitely is a part of being a person of integrity, but I'm not so sure I'm ready to put a period on the end of that definition. It goes a long way to defining what "honesty" is, and even though honesty is an integral part of integrity (*rimshot*) , receiving the compliment of being a person of integrity is just not the same thing as being told you're honest. Integrity goes so much further than honesty, and involves what is "right." In fact I would define integrity as "saying, doing, and intending the right thing."

If integrity is saying, doing, and intending the right thing, then perspective would be understanding when you are saying, doing, and intending the right thing. Integrity is a personal way of being, and yet perspective involves community. Without perspective you may never know what the right thing is, because you haven't taken enough into account. Consider a leader who builds an impenetrable wall to protect his citizens. His words, actions, and intentions were all in line with what he thought was right, but he failed to maintain the perspective of his citizens, who were all farmers. Now they're all safe... and seperated from their livelyhood. Oops.

So there you have it. The Beginning. This blog will be about whatever, whenever, with only one thing remaining constant: the author will always strive to understand what is right, and to say, do, and intend the right thing. If you ever catch me losing perspective, or find yourself questioning my integrity...eat me.

Until then...

The Beginning.