What is your “code of conduct” in your life?

There was a time that men had a “code of conduct”. Some called it chivalry and going back even further it could the Knight’s code of honour. These days there isn’t a defined code so much but generalisations. Or is there? We asked the men down at the Men’s Shed about their own personal “codes.”

“Say ‘Yes” to whatever my wife asks,” Barry laughs as he said. “We’ve been married 41 years, and it’s worked a treat. Except for the time she asked me if I ate the last piece of her special chocolate. It got me in the doghouse that night I’ll tell ya,” chuffed Barry.

Hank had a different code “Treat others the way you want to be treated,” he says. “It sounds good on paper, right? The problem is I like people to be 100% honest with me. I don’t have time for bullshit. So I’m straight with them, and I get told I’m too abrasive.” Hank shakes his head. “You just can’t bloody win.”

“I was raised by a very old school father,” Tom said. “You can only have a drink on Friday and Saturday, you must always be clean shaven, hair kept. Never swear in front of a woman, and make sure you never have to be asked to do things around the house because you’ve already done them,” Tom said smiling. He finished with “The hair one was the easiest, of course, I lost all of mine when I was 23.”

John only has one code that he lives by that he learned when he was in Vietnam. “I’ve always liked to read, and my Dad was a big Shakespeare buff so I would read those things all the time. One quote from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar got me through my service and had guided me through life. ‘Cowards die many times before their deaths. The brave only experience death once.’” John thinks for a moment, “To me; that means that if you are always brave enough to try new things and have experiences than life is a treasure chest. Those too afraid to live life die within themselves in missed opportunity.”

What are some “codes” that you live by? Will you be adopting some of our men’s “codes”?