Coraggio, Onore e Lealtà Part 1: "Loyalty"

The title is in Italian because it's a trait the people of Italy are renown for, and it's something I admire, maybe I've watched or read to many things on the Italian Mafia  but it doesn't make the trait any less admirable. If you couldn't guess this will be the 1st of a three part series that I will be writing about, the other two topics are Courage and Honor but for now Loyalty is something I feel drawn to write about.

"Loyalty and friendship, which is to me the same, created all the wealth that I've ever thought I'd have. -Ernie Banks"

Loyalty is the foundation of any organization, union, or relationship. It is blatantly obvious that in our society that the idea of loyalty has almost completely diminished and it can be seen in the "friendships" people have with one another. Love thrives on respect, and respect comes from loyalty, without loyalty there is no trust and without trust we might as well throw in the towel and give up because there is no way in hell we could have any hope of a happy life.

Things you should be Loyal to

1. Family (Which would include fiances but not significant others of less than 3 years, because let's face it anything can and probably will happen and I personally think if you happy dating a person for at-least 3 years you have put up with each other for long enough to be considered family)
2. Friends (This is where I believe relationships below the 3 year mark come in but these do not take precedence over long time friendships due to my belief that your friends were around before your relationship and should be after)
3. Organization/Job/Etc.

Loyalty in a friendship means truth will always be told and nothing will be done that would hurt your "family" be it snitching, withholding valuable information, or backstabbing.

Now in the odd case that you have fallen for or like a friends ex and plan to have a real relationship with them (I say again REAL relationship) the best way to not have your loyalty questioned and to avoid an ass beating is to ASK yes ask get clearance from your friend to see if it's ok. Do not leave any details out about how you and and the other party have been communicating and for how long. If you in anyway contributed to the downfall of the relationship in order to "get your in" consider yourself an enemy and prepared to be dealt with as such.You've been around this person long enough to know how they feel so even if they say it's ok they may just be saying this to not stand in the way of your happiness no matter how much pain it causes them which means if you go through with it you may have just lost a good friend. Tread these waters carefully, simply because you more than likely know what happened in their relationship and may be setting yourself up for the same failure.  Loyalty is not limited to past relationships but potential love interests as well so if your friend tells you they like someone STAY AWAY, hell even if they don't tell you and they are acting like they have feelings for that person STAY THE FUCK AWAY. I mean in all honesty if you are willing to potentially lose a friend over some random person you need to not only evaluate the friendship but yourself as well.

This should go without saying but if you are LUCKY enough (yeah I said lucky) to be in a relationship stay loyal shit isn't that hard I highly doubt you have former models turned chefs with PhD's begging for you to sleep with them and even if you did the person you are with is being loyal to you and on top of that they put up with all your shit if you can't respect or love them enough to remain faithful to be frank you don't deserve them.