What does it mean to be honorable? In an attempt to define my view, let me tell you a little story.
About a year ago, a young ten year old friend of mine had a buddy over to play with. They wanted to play baseball but they only had one baseball glove and everyone knows you can’t have a simple game of catch with only one glove. So… the young boy came to me and asked if he might borrow my glove. I really had no problem digging out my trusty infielder’s glove that I had enjoyed for more than 40 years. I hesitated a second as I handed it to him. I said to the young lad, “You kids have fun throwing the ball around but please take extra care of this old piece of leather. You see, it’s an old Wilson A2000 that my parents bought me when I was your age. It means a lot to me.” He shook his head “yes,” smiled and then off they ran. I never thought much about it after that. Frankly I couldn’t remember if he put it away where I got it or if he kept it under his bed.
Now fast forward about 6 months. Turkey in the oven, Christmas tree in the living room and fire in the pellet stove. I had just been given my annual mandate to install the Christmas lights on the house. There I was, moving the ladder to the right 2 feet at a time, reaching out over the shrubs and through the trees. At some point I looked down into this one bush in particular as something way inside caught my attention. I reached in to grab whatever it was and to my shock and disappointment I found my wet, rotten, moldy glove. It had seen its end in the middle of an old shrub. In my attempt to resuscitate my leather friend, I put him in a box and shipped him to a glove specialist in Northern California. She called me a few days later and told me there was nothing that she could do to help. It was time to look into getting a new glove.
I told my 10 year old friend what I found and you could tell he felt awful. You could even tell that he was disappointed in himself having neglected to take care of something that I told him meant a lot to me. A few times since then, he has asked me to play catch with him. We have a very good relationship in which we are constantly teasing each other so I would jokingly say to him, “I can’t… I don’t have a glove.” He would smile… put his head down and change the subject.
Now fast forward another 5 months. It’s late April. Sunday, April 26th to be exact. We had a little pizza night with cake celebrating early, my birthday which was later in the week. My family was there and so was the family of my 10 year old friend. We finished our dinner and enjoyed some birthday cake with too many candles to count. Then out came the gifts. My young pal grabbed a rather large gift bag and ran it over to me. “Open this one first,” he said. Well, you guessed it. In the bag was a brand spanking new, Wilson A2000 baseball glove. Now these aren’t cheap mind you. They retail into the hundreds of dollars. Obviously I was appreciative but not only that; I was touched by the look on the young boy’s face. He seemed happy and proud. I was impressed with the fact that he clearly wasn’t going to let it go until he made it right. He did.
I spoke with his mother later that night. When he first came to her with the idea of buying me a glove for my birthday, she told him, “That’s way too much money to spend.” She said he began to cry. He so badly wanted to make right on this, he didn’t care what it cost. Awesome. He is a great kid with great principles. He is praiseworthy.
This, to me, defines honorable.
Have a great weekend everyone. I’ll be breaking in a new glove. 
