Twenty-Two Drafts
Aug. 2nd, 2006 11:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
governmentninja"But it was my integrity that was important. Is that so selfish? It sells for so little, but it's all we have left in this place. It is the very last inch of us. But within that inch we are free...An inch. It's small and it's fragile and it's the only thing in the world worth having. We must never lose it, or sell it, or give it away. We must never let them take it from us."
-Alan Moore
It's always tempting to lie to get what you want, especially when you know you can get away with it. It would be so easy for him. No one was going to look at the report anyway. Actually, that was untrue. One or two people would look at it, stamp it, then black out 95% of everything on there and bury it.
Honestly, Leon could write whatever he wanted to on that report and get away with it. And he knew that. And it would make things so much easier.
And for one brief moment, he did give into that, having lied to an officer when they came to pick up Hips and Salazar. When he did, he gave up a very small, but very important part of himself in the process. But unlike some, rather than let the lie snowball by repeating it, he was going to stop it. He was going to reclaim that last inch of himself.
It was part of who he was. He could do things the easy way, but he'd rather do things the right way. He has standards, and he was going to adhere to them. He wouldn't let himself become a hypocrite.
So, twenty-times he rewrote his report. He had to be creative with language, relying more semantics than anything else, but after twenty-two times, he got it right. He omitted a lot of information, he had to be vague about some other facts, but there wasn't a single untruthful word on that page. Then, and only then, could he sign his name to it.
He did sign it, and handed it over, secure in the knowledge that his signature still meant something. That his word still meant something. That he didn't forsake his honor to get what he wanted. That while he had slipped, he still hadn't let go of that last inch of himself.
And being able to hold on to that last piece of himself made all the difference in the world.
-Alan Moore
It's always tempting to lie to get what you want, especially when you know you can get away with it. It would be so easy for him. No one was going to look at the report anyway. Actually, that was untrue. One or two people would look at it, stamp it, then black out 95% of everything on there and bury it.
Honestly, Leon could write whatever he wanted to on that report and get away with it. And he knew that. And it would make things so much easier.
And for one brief moment, he did give into that, having lied to an officer when they came to pick up Hips and Salazar. When he did, he gave up a very small, but very important part of himself in the process. But unlike some, rather than let the lie snowball by repeating it, he was going to stop it. He was going to reclaim that last inch of himself.
It was part of who he was. He could do things the easy way, but he'd rather do things the right way. He has standards, and he was going to adhere to them. He wouldn't let himself become a hypocrite.
So, twenty-times he rewrote his report. He had to be creative with language, relying more semantics than anything else, but after twenty-two times, he got it right. He omitted a lot of information, he had to be vague about some other facts, but there wasn't a single untruthful word on that page. Then, and only then, could he sign his name to it.
He did sign it, and handed it over, secure in the knowledge that his signature still meant something. That his word still meant something. That he didn't forsake his honor to get what he wanted. That while he had slipped, he still hadn't let go of that last inch of himself.
And being able to hold on to that last piece of himself made all the difference in the world.
