In other words, Confucius is assuring us that we can develop this quality in our character if we make the effort.
Is Image Everything?A great American president has addressed this subject. On the issue of character President Abraham Lincoln said:
Reputation is the shadow. Character is the tree. Our character is much more than just what we try to display for others to see, it is who we are even when no one is watching. Good character is doing the right thing because it is right to do what is right. [iv]
These words echo those of Confucius. Reputation is a good thing but only if it is a geniuine expression of good character. If you have a good reputation and it is not sincere, meaning it is not the result of good character, then it is a sham, a trick, a manipulation. And if you accept the proposition that the world is what we make it, then a world created on a false image is a sham, a trick and a manipulation. Is such a world truly worth having? Is such a life truly worth living? Image is not everything.
The Tao of Public Service says:
Every person, place or thing has a purpose. In every form of life, for every event, there is an essential idea...The highest and best part of each one of us is an essential idea that must be properly stimulated in order to grow. We are born into this world to do and act in a certain way. We actually have a cosmic and universal right to "be ourselves..." [v]What this means for the individual is that he or she must strive for perfection. It is not the all-encompassing perfection of the omnipotent or the omniscient, but it is the limited perfection of the form at hand...One has to strive for the immediate and attainable ideal. One has to try and be the best athlete, worker, teacher, doctor, lawyer, soldier, judge, professor, president, governor, mayor, CEO, husband, wife, son, daughter, father and mother one can become. A mayor does not have to perfect being a president. The mayor has to perfect being a mayor. The daughter does not have to perfect being a son. The daughter only must strive to be the best daughter possible..." [vi]
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