Have you ever gone outside and looked at the clear blue sky while inside  the eye of a hurricane? In 1985 Marcia and I did.
 
We had planned to stay overnight on Manhattan Island, NY, and visit all of the tourist sites, such as the Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, the World Trade Center, and then fly out of La Guardia Airport the next evening. But our plan didn't work out.

That morning we took the subway down to Battery Park only to find out that the Statue of Liberty was closed for repairs and refurbishing. So on our way back, after stopping to look at Wall Street, we exited the subway under the World Trade Center, went up the escalator and were heading to the elevators when alarms and flashing lights went off,  everyone was ordered to evacuate both towers due to high winds.

We returned to our hotel, and after hearing that hurricane Gloria was heading right for us, we checked out and went directly to La Guardia Airport just outside of Manhattan.

Just as we arrived at La Guardia, the tunnels were closed behind us and all aircraft grounded. So now we were trapped inside the airport. Within an hour the entire tarmac was covered with water from the risen bay, the winds started wailing so all the people ducked and covered in the glassed-in terminal.

The wind and rain suddenly stopped and the sun came out. So not knowing any better, Marcia and I went outside for a walk in an adjacent neighborhood enjoying the sun and a clear blue sky until a police officer chased us down and ordered us back inside  the airport, because this was just the eye of the hurricane. About 15 minutes later, the sky turned black again and all hell seemed to break loose, but worse than before, with whitecaps on the runway and winds literally rocking the entire terminal.

As far as I know no one was injured at the airport.  We were well cared for during the extended wait for the next flight home, and  very thankful for God's protection.  TGM

I'm writing this primarily for your children or grandchildren, the Millennial, X and Y generations which for the most part, have evidently never been taught many of the fundamentals of a successful life.

One of these fundamentals is the value of a good reputation or good name, based upon one's good word.

One's word is considered good if he or she has a reputation of "keeping" that word. That is to say, a reputation of saying what you mean, meaning what you say and completely and consistently fulfilling whatsoever you said that you would do.

I believe that God created every human relationship to be contractual in nature and to be established, developed and maintained in good faith, based upon God's New Testament law of love. Your good word is an expected requirement of every good faith contractual relationship.

Your word is your bond, your seal and your verbal contract. And one's good reputation is primarily based upon completely and consistently fulfilling these contractual relationships without breaching, breaking or violating them. And "failure to perform" on these contractual relationships is equivalent to breaching them. One's good reputation is built upon a series of successes and can be severely damaged by even one failure.

Therefore, a good reputation or good name, based upon one's good word, should be among your most valuable  possessions, and should be nurtured and protected.

Your reputation is based upon how others view what you say and subsequently do to fulfill what you said. Based upon that reputation, your word is either good or it is not. And your good or bad reputation is always directly linked to your name.

Society today has come to believe that one's reputation is based upon how popular, notable, acceptable, privileged, helpful or politically correct one is or they base that reputation upon one's position, stature, appearance, standing, fame or ability to fit into that society.

Society today has come to believe that as long as one can appear to be sincere and do a good enough job to spin, hide or cover up one's string of breached, violated and broken relationships, then one's reputation can still be considered good. And even if one's reputation is considered bad by society today, it's considered trivial by many and easily overcome by one's own high opinion of themselves as a mere marketing tool and a means to an end, as opposed to the ultimate measure of one's character.

Society today has come to believe that a good reputation, a good name and one's good word doesn't or shouldn't even matter. After all, their entire lives they have been taught that as long as everyone "does their best" they should be awarded a ribbon or trophy to make them "feel" good about themselves.

Today's society and its educational system have cranked out innumerable numbers of indistinguishable, perfectly good, yellow, No. 2 pencils. Yes, some may stand a little taller than the next, some may be sharper than the others and some may have used up more of their erasers, but all are perfectly usable yellow, No. 2 pencils.

But society today is wrong. A good reputation or good name, based upon one's good word will help you succeed. Whereas a bad reputation or bad name, based upon one's breached, violated and broken contractual relationships will contribute to your failure. TGM