One of the more recent quotes floating around on facebook these days is: If you hurt my daughter, I will make your death look like an accident. I am fully aware of the fact that my humor is warped, but I love that quote! It reflects the degree of loyalty that we feel toward our children.

We can’t help but love people who love our kids. That is an important principle of life! And the opposite is true as well. I had a girlfriend in high school whose dad did not think too much of me. I realize I was not the best influence in her life, but he should not have been so difficult. (At least that is the way I felt at the time.) If that girl had been hurt by me, my death would have been imminent. And I think he felt no concern about making it look like an accident either. Dads of daughters… They are just irrational!

Loyalty is a good thing. Looking out for those whom we love is an important part of life. Sometimes such a task necessitates a little creativity. Today I read an article about a young soldier who deployed to Iraq. Like many soldiers going overseas he left a girlfriend behind. I have a very emotional departure envisioned in my mind. She of course gave him a picture of herself before the final goodbye was said.

As fate would have it, the young man received a “Dear John” letter from his sweetheart back at home. She even had the audacity to conclude the letter with the following request:

Please return the photograph I gave you just before you shipped out. It is the favorite picture I have of myself, and I want to use it with my engagement announcement in the newspaper.

Can you imagine how that soldier felt, after receiving that news and the accompanying request? He was devastated. He had a hard time hiding it. His Army buddies had to do some serious prying before they discovered what as troubling their friend, but they finally got it out of him. At this point in the story, their loyalty becomes creative…They decided to come to his rescue.

They pooled all of their photos of their girlfriends and their wives. They then took the collection of 175 pictures and dumped them in a shoebox. The photographs were then sent to their friend’s former girlfriend a note enclosed which said:

Dear Chelsea,

Please find your picture and return the rest. For the life of me I can’t remember which one you are…

As I have already stated, my humor is pretty warped. I find that story very amusing. Sometimes it is just appropriate to allow your friends to display their loyalty in creative and ingenious ways. It makes we wonder what kind of imaginative way that I can show my loyalty to those closest to me