Reliability is a virtue. Being reliable is something I strive for. I am for the most part that one person you can always rely on. If I say I will do something, it will be done. I’m like a hammer:I’ll always be sitting in the toolbox, and when you’re ready to hammer something, you know where I am, and you know that I’ll work.

I highly value reliability. And I find that it is something that is sorely missing from most people nowadays. What ever happened to keeping your word? What ever happened to keeping your promises? It is one of the biggest pet peeves I have. Scratch that, it’s not a pet peeve; it’s entirely unacceptable to me. When someone says that they will do something, I expect them to stick to their commitment. Of course, most people don’t, and I usually take people’s promises with a grain of salt. Even so, people never cease to disappoint me.

I understand that things do happen and everything, but it is common courtesy to apologize and notify the person to whom you made a commitment to (no matter how trivial) if you cannot do as you promised. It’s about respect and conscientiousness. It’s amazing how many fully grown adults don’t understand this basic value.I’m not perfect…there have been times when something completely slipped my mind. But I always apologize and I always make that effort to be reliable. That’s far more than can be said for the vast majority of people nowadays. And it’s a real shame. I have no clue what it really was like “back then”, when “good old American values” were still all the rage. Perhaps it never was like that at all. It doesn’t matter though. I just hope that I will someday raise my kids to recognize the value of reliability.P.S. I may have written about this before…which just goes to show you how often this matter bothers me.