by Joshua Alderink

Created on: January 17, 2007   Last Updated: April 30, 2007

Modesty is like ethics, its relative. Ethics is determined by you, what you think your ethics are. Modesty is the same. Whether or not you think you're modest depends on what you think being modest is. If you think you're modest, then you're modest. Take my sister for example. My sister has no problem chewing with her mouth open and burping out loud then laughing at her burp like it's the funniest thing ever. She will talk, very loudly might I add, at random times about random things just because she feels like it. To me she is very obnoxious and rude sometimes, but I sill love her. To her, this is as modest as she is going to get. I don't think she sheds a hint of modesty at all but that's just my opinion. Modesty is defined in the Webster's Dictionary as the state or quality of being modest, reserve of propriety in speech, dress, or behavior. If we take three of the four suggestions that the Webster's Dictionary gives, modesty can be seen the easiest in three different ways, how someone speaks, dresses, or behaves.

Take another situation for example. A typical dinner at the Steven's house goes something like this: "Sit up straight Timmy. Don't chew with your mouth open. Keep your elbows off the table. Ask to be excused when you are through eating. Say please and thank you. Have some respect. Be a modest young boy." For the Stevens, modesty at the dinner table is defined by being polite, not chewing with your mouth open, and keeping your elbows off the table.
Now here's another situation that is in contrast to the Steven's family. A typical dinner at the Jones': "Hey, pass me the beans and some more chicken. The last roll is mine, you can't have it! Watch this, I can shoot beans out of my nose and make them stick on the window. That was a sweet burp, better than the last one." Very obviously seen, the Jones' modesty level is much different than the Steven's. Yet, if the Jones' think that they are being modest when they eat dinner, then they are because modesty is up to you and what you think modesty is.
Are you modest if you don't curse? Is everyone who has never said a curse word automatically a modest person? If that's not how it works, how then does someone have to speak to be modest? At the Steven's house, Timmy had to use words like please and thank you and, at the Jones' house all you had to say was, "hey, pass me that." For the two families, modesty in terms of how you speak is completely different. How you speak can determine if you are a modest person.

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>