I have had the
privilege or rather the misfortune of living in an era where loyalty is a
foreign concept to everyone. Growing up, I would look at the kind of friends my
mother had, and I just knew that when I was grown, I will have the same. Those
women were fiercely loyal to each other and I always wanted that for myself. I
never heard a negative word against any of the ladies, and mom was always
confident that if she was not around and we needed any adult guidance, her
friends will sort us out.
Loyalty is a
two-way relationship, and yes, I did say that loyalty is a relationship. In
loyalty there is respect and that is a definite give and take.
Why is it so
hard for the generation of today to be loyal? Is it that those before us did
not set a good example for us? Is it that we have become so materialistic that
we put all else above loyalty? Is there hope yet?
Is loyalty
taught? I take loyalty to be just like love and respect. It comes from deep
within us. A loyal person will always be loyal. Regardless is the situation and
circumstance. A disloyal person will never muster enough strength to be loyal
unless it benefits them to act loyally for a moment until the circumstance
change. A disloyal person will always be selfish and no school on earth will
ever succeed in teaching them how to be loyal.
Maybe loyalty is
taught. What we see as kids becomes autopilot to us as grown-ups. I would
compare loyalty to the question of race and love. A child knows no color of
skin but only that we are all human and hence the same. It is until society
starts to put labels on people that the child will realize that the others are
different from them. The same goes for loyalty, if the people around the child are
backstabbers and liars, chances are high that the child will grow to be like
them. Maybe the generation before us failed us with their disloyal ways.
Society has
become materialistic and the most terrifying manner. Anyone with no material
things does not deserve loyalty in society today. It has become such a crisis
that people would rather give all their money to an already wealthy person,
than help a poor man feed his family.
Before a man
embarks on a romantic journey, he must first secure his finances just so
he can have a fair opportunity in the field. Ladies are more loyal to their
married sugar daddies than to their boyfriends, and young men are more loyal to
their cougars. It is all about who brings more to the table. A broke person, in these current times, does not deserve loyalty.
The issue of
loyalty is so twisted and confusing that we don’t know how being loyal looks
like. There is a thin line between loyalty and flattery. We don’t know where
one ends and the other begins.
I came about this quote recently, that said, "with so many things coming back in style, I can't wait until loyalty and morals become a trend again." I look forward to the time when loyalty will trend again, and if we expect the next generation to be loyal, we must then go back to the basics and learn so that we will in turn teach our children what loyalty is. We must show them by our actions and ensure they don't confuse loyalty with material advantages.
