C for Character

Character referees? As I dutifully filled in the details, I couldn't help but wonder about character. Character refers to moral qualities, ethical standards, principles and the like. Character reference is the norm in job applications; some professions deemed character reference more important than others.

The thing is this: Exactly how much of a person 's character does another know? And how much exactly does another know of that person is the person's real character, that one really is? Does spending much time suffice the judgement of a person's character? Perhaps the word judgement is misleading; comprehension is possibly a better word.

Character referees. I suppose they do represent the epitome of a person's integrity and all that one genuinely is to a large extent. But what if a person is not whom you think s/he really is? Does that imply purposefully obscuring whom one really is?

For a while now, something I'd heard from friends over dinner one day had been unsettling. Of course, I am aware of the necessity to decipher the extent of accuracy of the gossip. But truth be told, I do find it hard to reconcile with the stories I've heard. As I struggle to re-establish my ability to look at the one in question in the eye without flinging, I couldn't help but question the need for different facets and how and why one chooses which facet to show to whom. But I reckon Thomas Babington Macauley said it well: "The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he never would be found out."