My List Of 10 Essential Values

Lately, it seems like it's been getting harder to find people that actually do the right things.  The number of "real men" and "ladylike" women has been dwindling; everyone's so brainwashed by the media that they don't know how to be a decent person anymore.  And when you call people out on this, questioning their "sense of decency", they throw vile insults at you (sound like somebody we know, liberals?).  As such, I have taken it upon myself to write out my idea of the things a man (or woman for that matter) should do/not do.  I call it my "List of 10 Essential Values"; have a look.  

In no particular order:

1. Be generally respectful of others.  If you give me respect, I will give you respect, but don't expect any respect from me if you're not willing to give some in return.  

2. Remember the Golden Rule: "do unto others as you would have done unto you".  Translated, "don't be a dick", LOL.  

3. Don't lie.  

4. Don't cheat, especially when it comes to your spouse.  

5. Don't steal, because "the government hates competition", LOL.  

6. Don't seek to harm or kill others, unless in self-defense.  

7. Believe that there is some kind of higher power, and a purpose to your life.  On this point, I really don't care if you worship Jesus, Buddha, Yahweh, or the "Almighty Great Green Lizard Under The Sea".  Nevertheless, I think that you should at least acknowledge that a higher power exists, whatever you believe it to be.  

8. Give one hundred percent of yourself in everything that you do.  If it's not worth doing well, it's not worth doing.  Also, try to learn something new every day.

9.  Respect and honor your parents, as well as your elders.  

10. Cherish every day of your life, because it could all end in mere moments.  Life can be here one second, and gone the next.  

Let me stick in an eleventh here...don't incessantly whine and complain just because something didn't go your way, or your life isn't the greatest in the world.  Suck it up, and try to make things better.  

To quote the late poet Rudyard Kipling, if you stick to this list of beliefs and values, "you'll be a man, my son"....or a woman, for that matter. Coincidentally, his poem "If" happens to be one of my all time favorite pieces of literature.  

"If you can keep your head when all about you
   Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
   But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
   Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,
   And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream�"and not make dreams your master;
   If you can think�"and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
   And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
   Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
   And stoop and build ‘em up with wornout tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
   And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
   And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
   To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
   Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on”;
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
   Or walk with kings�"nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
   If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run�"
   Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And�"which is more�"you’ll be a Man, my son!"