CONSIDER ‘CHARACTER,’ PART IV. . .

This morning, gentle reader, we will conclude our brief exploration of the three major taproots that nurture and sustain ‘Character.’ Thus far we have briefly explored Knowledge/Knowing and Affect; this morning we will briefly explore Behavior.

In our culture one of our favorite phrases is ‘This is the Bottom Line!’ Regarding our ‘Character,’ consider that the ‘bottom line’ is Moral Behavior. I am prefacing ‘behavior’ with the adjective ‘moral’ because I assume (one assumption I own) that a person of ‘Character’ is also a person seeking to be a ‘Moral Person.’

It seems to me that Behavior is influenced by three taproots: will, competence, and habit.

Will enables us to mobilize and focus our moral energy. It engenders us with the courage and strength to move beyond our ego-centric interest and fears. It motivates us to enact Moral Behavior; the behavior that our head and heart tells us that moral beings choose to enact.

Competence directly refers to the skills, talents, abilities, and capacities – the range of behaviors – a moral being needs in order to ‘be moral.’ Consider that a person of moral ‘Character’ is well served by listening a certain way, by seeking to understand [self and the other(s)], by being empathetic, and to care for (to serve) those in need. A person of moral ‘Character’ models the ‘good’ and seeks to help the other(s) develop the capacities needed in order to also choose and enact Moral Behavior.

Habit helps. Aristotle reminded us a few years ago that the combination of what we think and what we choose to enact, over-time, promotes the development of a habit. Once integrated the habit helps define who we are. Practice is, therefore, crucial when it comes to habit development. But we must be careful for ‘practice does not make perfect’ – ‘practice makes permanent!’ Habit is crucial for we do not have the luxury of stopping to consider our every moral action. Habit enables us to appropriately react when we do not have the time to appropriately respond (firefighters, police officers, and military folks know the difference and importance of both and their training helps them prepare to appropriately respond and appropriately react and to know when to do one or the other).

And so, gentle reader, we are charged with – and at times challenged with – developing our Will, Competence and Habit so that we might then develop the habits that enable us to choose Moral Behavior.

This concludes our brief exploration of the three major taproots – Knowledge/Knowing, Affect, & Behavior – that nurture and sustain our ‘Character.’ If this, or some of this, speaks to you gentle reader I invite you to take more time exploring these taproots – perhaps to embrace them and develop your capacity to live into and out of one or more of them.