Something lost, something gained

Dogma is the established belief or doctrine held by a religion, ideology or any kind of organization: it is authoritative and not to be disputed, doubted or diverged from.

I have not tried to hide the fact that I am a firm believer in the idea and ideal of chivalry. Looking at what our society is becoming, I think that a modernized form of chivalry could well be the salvation of the world.

Chivalry is comprised of morality, honesty, integrity, compassion, respect, personal courage, responsibility, accountability and equality.

The Midddle Ages, when chivalry was born, were a much different place than the world we live in today. Its people were different. Women had almost no rights and really needed the protection chivalry provided. Today, not so much.

In today's world, with the right amount of drive, everyone can be what it is in them to be. Regardless of race, gender, religion or sexual orientation. You just have to want it badly enough to go chasing it.

It saddens me that not all seem to see chivalry in that light. I was forced by my own beliefs and convictions to leave the chivalric organization I would have happily spent the rest of my life championing. The verbiage is subtle. At least to a tree stump like me, it is. But the respect being accorded to women is a gilded cage. That respect denies them personal responsibility or accountability. It presumes that they are born with an innate understanding of what it is and means to be a woman, yet men are not. It places women upon a pedestal that is so high as to make every woman a faded copy of the Virgin Mary. How does this thinking give them access to the same virtues and ideals that chivalric men claim for themselves? How does it give them the right to live to their maximum potential? I don't believe it does. And that belief has set me apart from my brothers.

It has been my experience that some women can be just a vile and corrupted as any man. I don't see them as needing any special dispensation because they wear bras and panties. They, the same as everyone else, have to make that personal choice to be better people. To want to help others become better people. Considering the fact that they are still, for the most part, the primary caregivers of our children, shouldn't they perhaps be help more accountable? At the very least, be given the same opportunities for virtue as any man.

Is chivalry sexist? When viewed through the lens of the modern world, maybe so. Once, it was needed to be so. It served a purpose. Now, that purpose has changed and chivalry must change with it to be pertinent in the world today. It is also very important to remember, when studying history, chivalric codes were rarely followed strictly. Only a handful of knights and nobles were truly chivalric. Today's world needs chivalry to be more. To stand for more. For it's followers to give of themselves more. Will the world get what it needs from modern chivalry?

Probably not.

Saddened, Lancelot, his armor more dented and battered, sheaths his sword. Eyes cast down, he rides into an uncertain sunset, hoping Guenevere can climb off her pedestal.

He could use the company.