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Beautiful There is an aspect to today's chivalry, often overlooked, that deserves special recognition: Beauty! One need not be beautiful in shape or features to project beauty of the soul – and the souls of others recognize that. A person who is honest, kind, courteous, trustworthy, concerned for the well-being of others, strong yet tender, self-disciplined yet never overbearing, who listens more than talks, and works at least in some small way to make the world a better place, projects the beauty of all that he or she represents. This is not the kind of shallow, frivolous beauty that shallow, frivolous consumerism loves to portray. It is the real thing – it’s sincerity easy for others to intuit and admire and even hold in awe, as with any depiction of nature’s beauty. For that’s just what it is. A culmination of human nature that we should all be striving for – all the best and noble qualities within a personality’s reach – heroic for cultivating them and heroic for applying them to everyday life while keeping them true. This is the beauty we find in chivalric images… the summons we feel in our pulse as conscience awakens to the possibility… the source of incredible meaning and purpose that can be applied to everything we do. For human beings, this step of advancement – beauty in thought, word, and deed – is not something we fall into. It is, and forever will be, a matter of choice, commitment, and personal refinement. That too makes it a thing of worth and beauty.
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