Am I the only one who thinks Ted Geisel (aka Dr. Seuss) was one of the great moral philosophers of the 20th century? He wrote so much about the ethics of excellence. The Cat on the Hat teaches about moral responsibility. Green Eggs and Ham teaches us about the ethics of change when, maybe, we don’t want to change. How the Grinch Stole Christmas teaches us about the ethics of service to others. So, what does Horton Hatches the Egg teach us?

Horton teaches us the ethics of excellence and commitment. He teaches us to treat our word as our bond. We learn that honoring our commitments is the true road to excellence. Elephants can’t climb trees! Yet Horton, an elephant, does just that. Why? To honor his commitment to that lazy, good-for-nothing Mayzie! Does the seeming impossibility of the commitment overwhelm Horton? Yes, a little bit, at the beginning. But he adapts. Does the heat bother him? Of course it does. But he made a commitment and “…an elephant’s faithful one hundred percent!”. Does the cold intimidate him? Obviously, but he adapts to honor his commitment. Does he appreciate people gawking at him when he is a side-show oddity? Of course not! Yet, Horton abides.

Horton’s commitment to his ethics is his commitment to the ethics of excellence. His commitment to hatch that egg was, by all rational measure, stupid. Yet his ethics committed him to complete that assignment excellently. After all, “…I meant what I said and I said what I meant! An elephant’s faithful one hundred percent!”

So what does an elephant sitting on an egg have to do with the ethics of excellence? How does Horton’s commitment to that lazy, good-for-nothing Mayzie shape what it is we appraisers do? Does Horton’s commitment to his own ethics directly shape how and why we do what we do? No. But that influence is indirect. We, as appraisers, have committed ourselves to USPAP. Are we faithful to it, one hundred percent?