I’ve been thinking about character (the person you are when no one’s looking) while preparing for next Sunday’s talk.  I watch a couple of reality shows:  “Apprentice” and  Hell’s Kitchen.    They both have one thing in common.  Whenever someone gets caught on camera doing something that makes them look like a big jerk, they all say the same thing.  “I’m not normally like this…”  

On Celebrity Apprentice this week,  Dennis Rodman said after yet another angry confrontation, “I don’t have a hateful bone in my body…I can get along with anyone.”  On Hells Kitchen this week one of the Chef’s blubbered into the obligatory “confessional” camera,  “I’m being made out to be the b*tch of the kitchen…In real life I’m a very cool, nice, person.  Really?  I wonder if the people that actually know them would agree?

Thank God we don’t all have “celebreality” cameras following us. (yet)  I’m sure that all of us would have moments we would be ashamed of if we did.  But when we say “I’m never like this…”,  “I never do this…” is it true?     The answer to that question is our character.

“Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.:  Abraham Lincoln