The Woodman and his Axe

"In times of hardship or misery and anger, where humans only prioritize money and property or mere external wealth, and believe in the existence of the gods, a man was felling a tree on the steep bank of a river, and by chance let slip his hatchet, which dropt into the water, and sunk to the bottom.

Being in distress for want of his tool, he sat down and bemoaned himself on the occasion. Upon this, Mercury appeared to him, and being informed of the cause of his complaint, dived to the bottom of the river, and coming up again, shewed the Man a golden hatchet, demanding if that were his? He denied that it was: upon which Mercury dived a second time, and brought up a silver one; the Man refused it, alleging likewise that it was not his: he dived a third time, and fetched up the individual hatchet the Man had lost; upon sight of which the poor fellow was overjoyed, and took it with all humility and thankfulness.

Mercury was so pleased with his honesty, that he gave him the other into the bargain, as a reward for his just dealing. Away goes the man to his companions, and giving them an account of what had happened, one of them went presently to the river’s side, and let his hatchet fall designedly into the stream. Then sitting down upon the bank, he fell to weeping and lamenting as if he had been really and sorely afflicted.

Mercury appeared as before, and diving, brought him up a golden hatchet, asking if that were the hatchet he had lost? Transported at the precious metal, he answered yes, and went to snatch it greedily; but the god, detesting his abominable impudence, not only refused him that, but would not so much as let him have his own again," said Wulansari when she appeared in the sky, emitted her crescent moon beauty, after greeting with Basmalah and Salaam.

Honesty is the best policy, says Thomas Bewick on this fable, and one of our best poets has further stamped a value upon the good old maxim, by his assertion that 'an honest man is the noblest work of God.' The paths of truth and integrity are so plain, direct, and easy, that the man who pursues them, stands in no need of subtle contrivances to deceive the world. He listens to the honest monitor within, and makes good his professions with his practice: neither gold nor silver hatchets can make him deviate from it; and whatever situation he may be placed in, he is sure to meet the esteem of all men within the circle in which he moves, and has besides the constant pleasure of feeling self-approbation within his own breast.

Ethical values would include such things as happiness, respect, dignity, integrity, freedom, companionship, and health, according to Laura P. Hartman, Joe DesJardins and Chris MacDonald. The virtues are those character traits or habits that would produce a good, happy, and meaningful life. To practice such virtues and habits and acting in accord with one’s own character is to live a life of integrity. The term integrity connotes completeness of a being or thing. Personal integrity, therefore, refers to individuals’ completeness within themselves, often derived from the consistency or alignment of actions with deeply held beliefs. Personal integrity lies at the heart of individual who finds himself in a particular situation decision making: What kind of person am I or do I want to be? What are my values? What do I stand for? Every individual also fills a variety of social roles, and these roles carry with them a range of expectations, responsibilities, and duties.

Keeping promises, honesty and integrity are virtues which are part of veracity, say Shri G Subba Rao and P N Roy Chowdhury. Integrity means that the moral agent acts accordingto his inner convictions. His conduct is free from hypocrisy and deception. His actions are in conformity with his stated values. But it is hard to follow the high morals which one proclaims. It does not mean that one needs to abandon morals. One should be moral sincerely without making a show of it. Public leaders who possess integrity create interpersonal trust. Integrity which refers to actions resulting from a set of well-ordered commitments and beliefs promotes trust. Trust implies the capacity to depend on and place confidence in the actions of others. All social interaction depends on integrity and trust. Character, particularly integrity, is essential in public leaders. Ethics of integrity lead to development of moral character with self responsibility and moral autonomy.

Martha Beck illustrates Integrity from a different perspective. The word integrity comes from the Latin integer, says she, which simply means 'intact.' To be in integrity is to be one thing, whole and undivided. For example, when a plane is in integrity, all its millions of parts work together smoothly and cooperatively. If it loses integrity, it may stall, falter, or crash. There’s no judgment here.

Humans create elaborate cultures because we are intensely social beings, dependent on the goodwill of others from the moment we’re born. We also have an enormous capacity to absorb and replicate the behavior of people around us. From childhood, often without even noticing it, we learn exactly how to win approval and belonging in our particular cultural context. We act bubbly, quiet, or brave to please our families. We immediately begin to like whatever our friends say they like. We throw ourselves in whatever we believe will assure our place in the human world.

In this rush to conform, we often end up ignoring or overruling our genuine feelings—even intense ones, like longing or anguish—to please our cultures. At that point, we’re divided against ourselves. We aren’t in integrity (one thing) but in duplicity (two things). Or we may try to fit in with a number of different groups, living in multiplicity (many things).

If you’ve ever found yourself snapping at someone you dearly love, or sitting down to complete a work project only to spend five hours shopping online, it’s probably because you’re internally divided. You’re trying to act in ways that don’t feel right to you at the deepest level. Whenever we do this, our lives begin to go pear-shaped. Emotionally, we feel grumpy, sad, or numb. Physically, our immune systems and muscles weaken; we might get sick, and even if we don’t, our energy lattens. Mentally, we lose focus and clarity. That’s how it feels to be out of integrity.

All these inner reactions affect our outer lives. Since we can’t concentrate, our work suffers. Irritability and gloominess make us bad company, weakening our relationships. Everything in and around us is negatively affected when we lose integrity. And because our true nature is serious about restoring us to wholeness, it hauls out the one tool that reliably gets our attention: suffering.

If you’ve ever found yourself snapping at someone you dearly love, or sitting down to complete a work project only to spend five hours shopping online, it’s probably because you’re internally divided. You’re trying to act in ways that don’t feel right to you at the deepest level. Whenever we do this, our lives begin to go pear-shaped. Emotionally, we feel grumpy, sad, or numb. Physically, our immune systems and muscles weaken; we might get sick, and even if we don’t, our energy lattens. Mentally, we lose focus and clarity. That’s how it feels to be out of integrity.

All these inner reactions affect our outer lives. Since we can’t concentrate, our work suffers. Irritability and gloominess make us bad company, weakening our relationships. Everything in and around us is negatively affected when we lose integrity. And because our true nature is serious about restoring us to wholeness, it hauls out the one tool that reliably gets our attention: suffering.

Integrity is the cure for unhappiness. Your quest for integrity will begin in a place where we feel lost, exhausted, troubled, and unsure. You’ll see that psychological suffering always comes from internal splits between what your encultured mind believes and what feels deeply true to you. The way of integrity will help you heal these divisions. You’ll start to experience more wholeness than ever before. Once your inner life begins to heal, it’s on to a form of cleansing. In this stage of your quest, you’ll shift your external behavior to match your newfound inner truth. The further you go, the easier this becomes. Finally, as your inner and outer lives approach complete integrity, you’ll find yourself in metaphorical 'paradise.'

Integrity is character, ethics, and morals, says Dr. Henry Cloud. But it is also more, inter alia: The quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness. 'He is known to be a man of integrity.'; The state of being whole and undivided: 'upholding territorial integrity and national sovereignty.'; The condition of bring unified, unimpaired, or sound in construction. 'The structural integrity of the novel.'; Internal consistency or lack of corruption in electronic data.

And, the origins of the word we can see in the French and Latin, meanings of intact, integrate, integral, and entirety. The concept means that the 'whole thing is working well, undivided, integrated, intact,

and uncorrupted.' When we are talking about integrity, we are talking about being a whole person, an integrated person, with all of our different parts working well and delivering the functions that they were designed to deliver. It is about wholeness and effectiveness as people. It truly is 'running on all cylinders.'

The question could be, 'If someone to be successful, does he have to be able to do everything well? No one does everything well. We all have strengths and weaknesses.' And that is right. In fact, a lot of research and experience shows us that capitalizing on our strong areas and avoiding our weak areas is an essential concept. Anyone who thinks that a visionary, for example, should be doing the detail of spreadsheets doesn’t understand giftedness. First of all, it would be a waste if George Lucas spent all of his time calling on and selling films to distributors. Or if Tiger Woods had to negotiate and follow up with Nike. Perhaps that if Tiger were a weak negotiator or business executive, he could still win the Masters. And, more to the point, if he were trying to be some 'whole person' defined by having to do it all, then he would probably not win the Masters, as he would be misusing his talents, spending time doing something he might not do well and not doing what only he can do. If you are an investor, you want Tiger focusing on golf, not business.

So that is not the idea here. We all have strengths and weaknesses and we need to operate in those strong areas where we are talented and gifted. The idea here is about character that seems to transcend gifts, talents, and other ways of thinking about 'strengths.' Tiger needs to have all of them, or the lack of any one of them will begin to affect his career. They are things that will actually affect the golf itself, whether or not he ever decides to do the bookkeeping or selling of his name, brand, image, products, and the like. And that is true of his accountant and business manager as well as whoever does all of the other functions in his kingdom. Bottom line: the character issues will affect the one or two things you do well, forgetting any need to do the rest. Another way of saying this is that while you don’t need all the gifts that exist in the world, you do need all the aspects of character while you are putting your gifts to work.

So, the concept of integrity being about needing wholeness in all areas of character. But it does not negate the reality that we are not gifted in all areas, nor the reality that we do best when we are working within our gifts. What it does say is that if we do not have integrity of character, then our ability to capitalize on our strengths will be severely affected."

"Integrity is more than simple honesty. It's the key to success. A person with integrity has the—often rare—ability to pull everything together, to make it all good happen no matter how challenging the circumstances.  Integrity starts from the bottom of the heart as feedback from common sense, then comes out through words and actions.  People who have lost their integrity will suffer and have an impact on their surroundings.

This conception is beneficial for everyone, from ordinary people, businessmen, sportsmen, civil apparatus, soldiers, police, politicians and even public leaders. And Allah knows best," Wulansari concluded.

The dawn had given a sign, it was time for Wulansari to leave, and she left while singing Michael Bolton's song,

Said I loved you, but I lied

'Cause this is more than love I feel inside

Said I loved you, but I was wrong

'Cause love could never ever feel so strong

Said I loved you, but I lied *)

Citations & References:
- Henry Cloud, Integrity: The Courage to Meet the Demands of Reality, 2009, Harper Business
- Laura P. Hartman, Joe DesJardins and Chris MacDonald, Business Ethics: Decision Making for Personal Integrity and Social Responsibility, 2018, McGraw-Hill Education
- Shri G Subba Rao and P N Roy Chowdhury, Ethics, Integrity, and Aptitude for Civil Service Examination, 2018, CL Media
- Martha Beck, The Way of Integrity: Finding the Path to Yourself, 2021, Penguin
- Thomas Bewick, Bewick's Select Fables of Æsop and Others in Three Parts, 1784, Bicker & Son
*) "Said I Loved You But I Lied" written by Michael Bolton & Robert John Lange

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