Integrity

When people know you for a long time, they come to rely on you to behave in certain ways. It's funny, but my house now has a steady stream of Hispanic women who speak no English, brought to me by my housekeeper, who need various kinds of help--can I phone this lady for them and speak English to her so they can find out the address they have to go to, can I phone the garage that ripped them off and speak to the mechanic, can I go with them to the post office to straighten out a money order? It never (ever, ever) occurs to me that I would not do this. It's a question of someone needing help and I being in the position to offer it. This costs nothing more than my time. And . . . well, if you know me then even mentioning it is silly.

I've been thinking a lot lately about what integrity means as I see the collapse of it in a few situations. It's funny, because the dictionary says integrity is a "steadfast adherence to a strict moral or ethical code."

Now to SOME people, that could look like a church. Or a religion. Or maybe the kind of swearing-in statements made by an officer of the court or the law.

And to SOME people, it's adherence to a different code. Maybe a criminal one (for example, you don't rat out your friends).

For SOME a code is complex with nuanced rules. For SOME the code can be summarized with one or two very simple rules.

For me as a person . . . it's unsurprising that my "code" is my own. It's based on a concept of doing unto others (so yeah, not terribly original there)--and that means even when it's inconvenient or difficult or . . . . And it's not surprising then that my characters have integrity. But the code is most definitely their own.

In the course of Magickeepers, there are tricksters. But their principle is non-Magickeepers are fair game. It's no coincidence that P.T. Barnum is in Book II. There's a sucker born every minute. The Magickeepers are okay with the occasional trick in order to get the relics that must be kept safe. It's their own code. The relics are too dangerous to fall into the hands of the Shadowkeepers.

Nearly every character I've ever created has integrity to some code that you can't find written down anywhere. I think even if tomorrow I created a cop or a detective or a medical examiner . . . or a lawyer . . . or even a priest . . . they would have a code all their own.

And given the lack of integrity I see in the world and its people . . . I like knowing who I can count on in the world of fiction.

So if there is one sentence . . . one Code your main character holds most true, what is it?