honor

As a noun, Honor is a basically living consistently between your thoughts, words, and deeds in a way that demonstrates respect and care for the people, society, family, yourself.  For example, in the world of martial arts, if you talk about fitness as an important component of a healthy life, while your belly button is pushing hard against your uniform, then you might be acting in a way that is less than honorable, thus your message looses credibility and so do you.  This is a very undramatic example, but I think it is the little things on a daily basis more than the ‘big’ moments where honor should be practiced because it prepares us for those rare ‘big honor’ moments.

 

as a verb, it is either giving or recieving recognition in some way.

 

The titles “Mr., Mrs., Miss, Professor, Sir, Your Honor…” are all called “Honorifics” for a reason.  Same with scholastic certifications and so on.

 

These are recognitions/titles/ranks that should be earned through some demonstrative work that elevates oneself, the chosen discipline, and serve the wider community since ‘with great power comes great responsibility’ as the lastest cliche goes.

 

Unfortunately, people who chase these ‘honors’ have demonstrated how ‘dishonorable’ some ‘honors’ are by virtue of how much ‘honor’ went into the pursuit, so the word as noun or verb is sort of like ‘fried chicken’ in a way.  It just is a term that does not automatically connote ‘quality.’  How well it is prepared, presented, and whether or not it is consistently ‘good’ or ‘bad’ is in the hands of the artist.

-Paul Martin