It’s flu season. To be more specific, it’s influenza season. Influenza is, according to “Merriam Webster Online Dictionary”: “an acute highly contagious disease caused by any of several single-stranded RNA viruses and characterized by sudden onset, fever, prostration, severe aches and pains, and progressive inflammation of the respiratory mucous membrane.”
So you might get a case of influenza. I hope you don’t. How much better if you could get a case of character! The symptoms would read like a comprehensive list of character traits: respect, responsibility, integrity, honesty, self-control, courage of convictions, etc. What an illness! A case of that would alter your life, and the lives of those around you, far more than a case of influenza would. Wise men and women would be trying to catch it, instead of trying to avoid it.
Character actually does seem to be contagious at times. Add to a coarse group around the water cooler a person who is known to be a man or woman of character, and the group will tone down their normal loutish language and boorish behavior. They all seem to be coming down suddenly with a light case of moral excellence, but the effect wears off as soon as you withdraw the person of character.
Imagine what would happen if character were contagious. We could introduce it into a child’s system at birth, and breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that our child would go through life as a person of strong moral fiber. Governments could spread character among terrorists with biological warfare, and reap peace without dropping a single bomb or firing a single gunshot. In the best case scenario, someone would even find a way to infect politicians with character.
Picture this. Scientists in a laboratory hidden deep in the Rocky Mountains manage to alter genes in such a way that character becomes as much a part of us as the color of our eyes. They use their knowledge to create a process that can be done simply, in your doctor’s office – a process that alters your genes forever. You automatically pass on character to future generations; automatically give our poor old society a heavy case of character.
A case of character sounds good, on the surface, but it would not really work, would it? Character is more like a building than a case of flu, and who wants a building that can be thrown into place in a moment? Even pre-fabricated buildings take more effort than that. A building that can be thrown together in a moment will likely stand as long when the winds of adversity blow against it.
No, enticing as a case of character sounds, I think the proven way of gaining character is the only way. We lay a foundation, and then labor to build on that foundation with blocks of gold and silver, secured with the mortar of constant effort and attention. As we build, slowly and laboriously throughout our lives, the building rises higher; becomes stronger; grows in loveliness. The character castle we build is far more useful than a case of character would have been. It is far more attractive in the eyes of the beholder.
So you can catch influenza and you can’t catch character, but maybe, just maybe, the thought will remain in your mind. Maybe, as the media tells you about bird flu and other kinds of flu, they will cause you to think about building character. I hope so.
That’s the view from my chair. What’s your view?