By Nancy Patrick

As I watch and hear news reports from around the world, my mind teems with thoughts related to the following words. The definitions are mine, not Noah Webster’s.

I think as human beings we have a responsibility to other human beings as parts of a global entity to realize that no one stands independently from everyone else. Each person deserves his or her share in the abundance of God’s universe.

I will strive to make the virtuous qualities apparent in my portion of life as I will strive to conquer the wicked tendencies that oppose them.

1. Morality: a code of conduct that strives for goodness, honesty, fairness, and respect in relationships with others

2. Spirituality: a state of being in which one considers his or her life more than a physical or biological essence. Spirituality recognizes the invisible aspects of nature and human relationships that involve emotional connections.

3. Compassion: the ability to feel along with others even when one hasn’t experienced the same conditions. Compassion leads people to care, understand, and help others in their unique situations.

4. Empathy: the emotional connection people feel with others who experience similar circumstances. A mother who has lost a child to cancer can empathize with a parent whose child is also ill. Empathy enables one to vicariously feel another’s pain.

5. Sympathy: the emotional connection people feel for others even when their experiences are not similar. I can sympathize with a woman who has just lost her husband, but unless I have also lost a husband, I cannot empathize. Sympathy allows us to feel for others.

6. Arrogance: an attitude of superiority that implies one’s prominence over that of others. Arrogance involves a sense of entitlement that indicates a person’s right to special treatment no matter the consequences for others less entitled.

7. Humility: a character trait that illustrates one’s feelings of gratefulness and appreciation for life without expecting special treatment. A humble person is usually respectful, unpretentious, modest, and unassuming. Humble people do not consider themselves humble.

8. Hubris: a characteristic that assumes one is godlike in power, prestige, honor. It is a higher form of arrogance which appears in much ancient literature when a character presumes that neither the law of man nor the law of God binds him or her. Hubris is a tragic flaw that results in the person’s downfall.

9. Generosity: a spirit of sharing with others even if it involves self-sacrifice. Generous people look for needs of others and gladly share with them.

10. Selfishness: a negative trait in which a person cares for himself or herself above all others. A selfish person does not want to share and resists others’ needs.

11. Selflessness: the positive and opposite of selfishness. Selfless people put their desires and needs below the needs of others. They are generous and self-sacrificing.

12. Cruelty: a dangerous trait in which someone enjoys inflicting pain, whether physical oremotional, on other people. Cruelty hardens the heart, creating a cold, uncaring person whose only pleasure in life comes from the pain and sorrow of others.

13. Kindness: a quality that prompts someone to feel and care for others. It involves sympathy and empathy as a kind person looks for ways to make others’ lives easier or better.

14. Mercy: the undeserved grace or forgiveness a person can show to someone who has wronged him or her. Mercy is a gift, freely given but at great cost to the giver.

15. Freedom: a state of living in which people can choose the way they want to live. Freedom involves making choices as long as those choices do not impair another person’s freedom.

16. Deceit: a quality in which someone pretends feelings or beliefs in order to manipulate others. A deceitful person is usually selfish, arrogant, and unkind.

17. Integrity: a quality that implies a wholeness of character, from the term integer. A person with integrity is uncompromising and completely dependable.

18. Forthrightness: an approach to life in which one is open, honest, frank, and without deceit. Forthrightness requires a strong person who cares more about integrity than popularity.

19. Modesty: an attitude which conveys an unpretentious outlook that is not arrogant or ostentatious. Modesty does not seek the spotlight.

20. Artificiality: a sad quality in which self-esteem is so low that people never feel comfortable within their own skins. They live in a state of constant pretense.

21. Vengeance: the desire to get even with an offender. Vengeance is a dangerous emotion that can overwhelm one’s life with anger, hatred, and bitterness.

22. Meanness: historically meanness implied stinginess or miserliness, but today it relates more to callousness, malice, and spitefulness.

23. Gratitude: the ability to see and appreciate circumstances in life even if they are not the most desirable. 

Nancy Patrick is a retired teacher who lives in Abilene and enjoys writing