Well, he died. At the funeral, he was stretched out in the casket, his wife was sitting there in black and her friend was sitting next to her. When they finished the ceremony, just before the undertakers got ready to close the casket, the wife said, "Wait just a minute!" She had a box with her; she came over with the box and put it in the casket. Then the undertakers locked the casket down, and they rolled it away.

So her friend said, "Girl, I know you weren’t foolish enough to put all that money in there with your husband." The loyal wife replied, "Listen, I’m a Christian; I can’t go back on my word. I promised him that I was going to put that money in that casket with him." " You mean to tell me you put that money in the casket with him!!!!?" " I sure did," said the wife. "I got it all together, put it into my account and wrote him a check. If he can cash it, he can spend it."

This is obviously just a cute joke however; it has an eerie similarity to the issue of personal responsibility, ethics and integrity these days.

There are so many levels of integrity and ethics and we often cross those lines without noticing what I call the ethics of reverence.

For instance, we expect people who are not conscious to act in conscious ways without regard for the fact that they have neither the information, nor the life experience to do so. We simply expect they should bump up in understanding and actions to where we think we are.

We are angry when someone abandons us, even though we abandoned ourselves to be with that person in the first place, knowing they might abandon us.

Leaders want to be on pedestals, and yet, are aghast when their followers knock them off in order to be equal.

We are livid when others lie to us, yet we lie to ourselves about nearly everything and those who lie to us are simply reflecting that reality back to us.

We fight failure and unexpected challenges with the mistaken idea they have to do with our worth and lovability, while we miss the opportunities they present for graduating to higher learning.

We ignore the misuse of power when the one who has more of anything, takes from one who has less.

We give up and give in feeling like the victim, when in truth, it is we, who have stopped the process, and have taken control by doing so.

We act as if we have something to forgive another for when a potential partner has clearly told us who he or she is right from the beginning. Ah, but we who are almighty, convince ourself we are powerful enough to change him or her - and then when they ultimately leave us - stunned we miss how we set ourself up to be wounded. Why is it we don’t believe people when they tell us who they are?

Life is a fine balance, from moment to moment an opportunity to look deeper, slow down and express reverence for both the moment and the master teachers who are in it with us. Master teachers come to us in the form of those people you could use, someone who could use you when you ought to set a boundary and say no, someone you could selflessly help, someone you could sacrifice an ego need for, someone who seems smaller or lesser in any way. They come to us in the form of circumstances and opportunities to see the bigger picture, take the higher road and push our souls forward.

This planet is the school of higher learning and each of us has a chance to throw our graduation cap up in the air and receive the highest degree in the universe. All it takes is a little reverence and two simple questions…"Who am I and what am I here for?"