A good enough man for any world

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T h e   S t a n d a r d

Zion Chapel of Ease Cemetery

Hilton Head Island, South Carolina

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Down these mean streets a man must go

who is not himself mean,

who is neither tarnished nor afraid.

He is the hero; he is everything.

He must be a complete man

and a common man

and yet an unusual man.

He must be,

to use a rather weathered phrase,

a man of honor --

by instinct, by inevitability,

without thought of it,

and certainly without saying it.

If he is a man of honor in one thing,

he is that in all things.

He must be the best man in his world

and a good enough man for any world.

He has a sense of character,

or he would not know his job.

He will take no man's money dishonestly

and no man's insolence

without a due and dispassionate revenge.

He is a lonely man

and his pride is that you will treat him

as a proud man

or be very sorry you ever saw him.

The story is this man's adventure

in search of a hidden truth,

and it would be no adventure

if it did not happen to a man

fit for adventure.

If there were enough like him,

the world would be a very safe place

to live in, without becoming too dull

to be worth living in.

= Raymond Chandler =

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Happy Wednesday