a lost word

I was waking my dog this morning and I stumbled on a word.  Someone had left it lying on the sidewalk.  I thought perhaps it had fallen out of a pocket or purse; I refuse to believe it had simply been discarded as worthless.  I picked it up and looked around for whoever might have dropped it, but everyone around me seemed to be going about their business.  No one seemed to be desperately searching for a lost word.  I brushed it off with my hand. My dog stood on her hind legs and sniffed it.  I asked a passerby "did you drop a word?" but he didn’t alter his stride, he glanced at the word in my hand and continued on his way.

As I examined the word more closely I noticed that it was bilingual, it was Portuguese on one side and English on the other, and since I was standing in front of the state government palace, I figured some foreign dignitary must have dropped it while entering the building. So I walked up the steps leading to the great entryway.  The two guards stationed on each side of the door blanched as they saw me approach. Both moved to prevent me from entering the palace.  I assumed dogs weren't allowed so I told her to sit and wait while I stepped inside. But as I turned to enter, the largest of the guards blocked my way.  I explained that the dog would remain outside, but he informed me that the dog was welcome, the word would have to stay out.  "But it’s so little” I said, ”what harm could it do?” He became forceful in his insistence that the word not enter the building and I had to give up. 

I put ethics in my pocket and brought it home with me. I placed it on the shelf, but later had to move it because it kept getting in the way of my books. I put it on the table, but it kept getting in the way of dishes and flatware. So I moved it to my computer desk, but it kept getting in the way of the keyboard. I could understand why it had been discarded on the sidewalk, it’s rather an inconvenient word to have around. But I refused to give up.  I placed ethics on a pedestal in the middle of the house, so that everything else now had to revolve around it. This placement seems to be working, but only inside my house, I'm still not allowed to bring it into government buildings and public spaces.