Loyalty
"Love is friendship that has caught fire. It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving. It is loyalty through good and bad times. It settles for less than perfection and makes allowances for human weaknesses." -Ann Landers
There is a reason that wedding vows include "in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health." It speaks to the human condition. We are naturally selfish. We don't tend to put someone else's needs, wants, and desires before our own. When things get rough, we innately want to leave. Loyalty is about ignoring our instincts. It is about being selfless. Loyalty is about enduring the vicissitudes of life. It's about mutual respect and love.
Candor
I am a big fan of the Divergent Series. The series takes place in a not so distant dystopian future where society is divided into five factions: Abnegation (the selfless), Amity (the peaceful), Candor (the honest), Dauntless (the brave), and Erudite (the intellectual). I would like to think that I would be Erudite, however I would most likely be Candor. Born in September under the Libra zodiac, I have always had a strong sense of justice. I value truth and appreciate honesty.
However, truth and justice also has a way of dividing us. We feel strongly about our values. We ignore injustices that do not affect us. We live and socialize with like-minded people and create our own factions. We have a work faction, a church faction, a family faction, and a social faction. Division is a common theme in most post-apocalyptic films like The Hunger Games, Elysium, and The Matrix. Division is never seen as a good thing.
We live in a society that continues to divide us: Republican vs. Democrat, Citizen vs. Immigrant, Muslim vs. Christian, Poor vs. Wealthy, Black vs. White, and Homosexual vs. Heterosexual. Our current administration is drawing lines in the sand. They are dividing us into powerless factions. They are creating a great divide of wealth, resources, and education. Pay Attention! Unification is the key not division, but we must find common ground.