This is the second in a series of posts about the creed of Sigma Nu Fraternity. See part one here and part three here.

The second line of the creed is:

To Walk in the Way of Honor

We’ll break down this line in a similar fashion to the first line of the creed.

To Walk

Walking is the quintessential action verb. It’s the original form of locomotion. It’s a way to get from one place to another. The connotation of a journey is wrapped up in the notion of walking. Of course, a journey, in fictional, fantastical terms, often has trials and tribulations. That’s the kind of walk we’re talking about here. It’s one that becomes a challenge and will find detractors along the way undermining one’s forward progress.

Walking is often something we do with one or more other people. There’s a group aspect around sharing one of these journeys. We sometimes need help. We need motivation and companionship. We need the shared experience that makes our journey easier when it might be fraught with roadblocks. It’s the not just the strength we find in numbers that has value here, it’s the strength found in shared experience.

The value of a shared experience is a somewhat obvious part of our existence, but I find it’s taken for granted. In a world where we pretend that interactions like “poking” each other asynchronously across thousands of miles constitutes a shared experience, the true value of facing down tribulation and finding success has been diminished.

The Way of Honor

There are at least two connotations to the word “way.” It could be the method by which one completes some task, as in, “That’s the way you hammer a nail.” But the connotation that’s stronger here is that of the path of one’s journey. It provides direction to the walking I’ve described above. It strengthens that communal nature of the journey we’re on by dictating a single point to which we are all hurtling.

This kind of way also includes something that is prescribed or previously conquered. There’s typically someone who has done this before and we’re following their lead in order to grasp that shared experience. That is, there’s a prescribed way to make our way along the way, if you will. We’re also looking to ensure that the way is open for those who come after. We are challenged to improve upon the way as we pass by. At the very least, our duty is to ensure the way isn’t harmed or threatened by our passage. This whole sense of way is about brotherhood in the face of doing something that’s difficult. That difficulty is honor.

Much has been written about the meaning behind honor. With unpopular wars being fought in two countries, the word honor has gotten a lot of usage lately. Often, the word is tossed around with same flippancy as hero. That’s unfortunate because true honor often transcends the notion of hero. Honor is what heroes do when no one is looking. It’s a calling to that code that exists between human beings and especially between brothers that is wholly selfless and transcends the people involved. Honor speaks to that compulsion we, as humans, have to do better than we’ve ever done before. It’s that constant striving to do away with our more petty nature to approach altruism or sacrifice.

One question left unanswered is that if honor is an ideal, can we truly ever be honorable? The creed prescribes that following the path toward honor that our brothers have hopefully made easier for us and clearing the wilderness we find at the end to make a bit easier for those who follow is how we come closest to honor.

Coming to the third part, we’ll examine the phrase, “To serve in the light of truth.”