I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day.
Abraham Lincoln
Honor is something that, as your mother, I will never really have the chance to teach you about. Not really.
You are a boy, growing into a man… and a man will have to show you what it means to be honorable in a manly sort of way. Your life is so full of good men that I have no doubt you will be taught well but… I do have my own feelings on the subject, you know. So I will share them with you… and maybe one day you will listen and, at the very least, see all the hope I have for your character.
Honor is comprised of so many things. The first, I believe, is integrity. Integrity does not only mean choosing not to lie (although you should never lie… especially not to your mother). It means being true to yourself as well as with others.
At this moment in time, little man… you are living a life of complete integrity. So, your task is really quite simple in this regard: just keep doing what you are doing. Always be honest about how you feel. Keep loving others with such reckless abandon. Dress up like a princess. Or a ninja. Or a monkey. Dance to the music in your head. Forgive and expect to be forgiven. Tell the truth and ask the same in return. Just keep up the good work, bug.
Secondly, I truly do believe chivalry is an important part of living an honorable life. I know, I know… it is supposed to be dead and everything. But just do your mom a favor and keep in mind the five virtues of knights: friendship, generosity, chastity, courtesy, and piety. Open doors for people. Mind your manners. Help old ladies across the street. Be kind. Smile. Thank someone who is serving you: your bus driver, your waiter, the librarian or cashier. Be genuine. Treat your friends with respect. Treat women with respect. Treat strangers with respect. Tell a girl she is beautiful; I guarantee it will make her day, even if you never know it. These are good virtues to live by, no matter how old-fashioned they make me sound. A knight’s code will not fail you, I promise. How could it? Knights! Come on!

Also, listen to wise counsel. Choose your friends carefully and then heed their advice. It is not sensible to follow anyone blindly but, the truth is, you know when someone is reminding you of what is right– you always know in the pit of your stomach. Don’t ignore it. Be man enough to listen.
Finally, be brave. Liam Eliot, I so hope you will be brave. I hope you will face your fears with that crooked grin I have come to love so very much and that you absolutely possess the courage to choose not to let your fear control you. It is okay to feel afraid. It is certainly okay to admit when you are afraid. It is not okay to give fear permission to wrap it’s cold fingers around your throat and lead you around like a dog. Stand up straight. Ask for help. Face your fears.
But… here is the thing about honor, Liam… the most important thing of all to remember: in every single one of these things I have mentioned, you will fail. You will absolutely fail. You will make terrible choices. You will hurt people. You will lie. You will be careless with another person’s feelings. You will ignore good advice and you will be a bad friend. You will be cowardly. It is inevitable because you are human and humans are fallible creatures. We make mistakes. We often make big mistakes. Anyone who tells you they have never done these things is either a liar and a coward… or an idiot. Ignore them.
You are going to fail; you will probably fail big. But it is in your failure that you can be the most honorable of all. Liam Eliot, when you make a mistake, own it. Big or small, just… own it. It is so tempting to run away from our sin, to deny our weakness, to blame someone else- anyone else- for our shortcomings. This is the easy way out. This is gutless. Anyone can do it. People do it every single day. And a lot of the time, they get away with it. That is what makes being honorable so very hard... because… you could probably get away with it.
It is hard to face your mistakes. It is hard to say you are sorry. It hurts a lot to be honest with yourself, to admit you were wrong and to do your best to make it right. It is painful to be broken in front of others; it is often humiliating. And sometimes you are going to lose people’s trust and respect. Sometimes, you are going to lose your self-respect. It is going to take work to earn it back– a lot of very hard work. It takes so much courage to face our failure. And, in my opinion, it is one of the most honorable things a person can do.
You are blessed with so many great men in your life. Your uncle, your godfather, your grandfathers, and, of course, your beloved Papa are incredible, honorable men.
Learn from them, kid. You are in good hands.





















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