Splinter, I don't feel whole. How can I feel more whole?
To be more whole. A good question. The rat closed his eyes in thought for a moment, and drew a breath in slowly, as if he was summoning the words from the void all around him. There was a beat. "What was the question? Ah. More whole. I see." The rat spent another moment in thought, eyes closed and hands in his lap. "One word comes to mind. Integrity. In latin, integrity means whole. And to us, it means to be true to yourself and your moral code." The rat fell quiet again, and lifted his eyes towards the ceiling, one hand over his beard. "When I was little, white lies were looked upon as a way to be polite. Quite like tatemae. The concept of behaving in a way accepted by others. To hide behind a mask that says and acts on something they believe the listener wants to hear. Even though this can be good to some degree, this is not the path to feeling whole. So. I may be wrong, but perhaps you are breaking one of your moral codes without truly knowing it. So ask yourself, what are the laws of your moral code? And have you been following them?"












