Fela Durotoye  Courtesy: Bing.com

HOW TO BE A GENTLEMAN (1)

WHO IS A GENTLEMAN?

*Richard Cory was described as a gentleman from sole to crown whom every body admired. He was clean favoured and imperially slim. His other profiles include:

And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
'Good-morning,' and he glittered when he walked.

And he was rich - yes, richer than a king -
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.

So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.

Such was the pathetic story of Richard Cory. It turned out that he wasn’t a gentleman after all!

 From the above story, I can boldly say that the six packs on a man’s stomach don’t qualify him as a gentleman, nor does the fat bank account. A degree from Harvard, Yale, Oxford or any Ivy League institution does not make a gentleman. That you drive the latest car model; work in a blue chip company or walk with certain swag are not all it takes to be called a gentleman. Any man who thinks he is a gentleman because he is handsome, young and muscular has missed it completely.

The honor of a gentleman demands the inviolability of his word, and the incorruptibility of his principles; he is the defender of the defenseless, and the champion of justice—or he is not a gentleman.       

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Ultimately, however, being a gentleman has little to do with tying a tie or fumbling with the flatware. Instead, it requires only a little logic, a bit of forethought, and a great deal of consideration for others. It is not about complicated rules and convoluted instructions. It is about trying to make life easier for other people. It is about honestly and sincerely being a nice guy.

 

*Richard Cory is the title of a poem by Edwin Arlington Robinson