There once was a time in my life that I believed that honesty was the ONLY policy. I once thought that if we would only tell the truth about everything then the world would be a better place. I adopted that policy in my own life. But events of the last few months have made me really think on this concept of truth vs. lies. Humor me for a moment.
Is honesty best? I used to say yes, in EVERY situation, tell the truth. Now I am not so sure. If you know that the truth is going to hurt one you love, should you tell anyway? If it is something that would only hurt that loved one if they knew, why tell them? Why hurt them to ease your own conscious? If they didn't know, they wouldn't hurt.
Ok, so now you're going to say "Well, don't do the thing you'd have to lie about." Oh, well, now that would be wonderful if we could all do as everyone else wished. But sadly, the fact of the matter is that at some time in our lives we are going to do something that's going to hurt another. Sometimes we do things to make ourselves happy, and that thing others may not approve of. I'm not talking here about doing anything that would harm another, I am talking about innocent things. Things that if no one knew about, then it wouldn't effect them in any way. Simple things like talking on the computer, or riding a motorcycle. Things that aren't going to hurt the other people. I'm not talking about cheating on a loved one, because that CAN hurt the loved one.
So what do you do? You've done something that you know is going to hurt another if they know about it. Do you keep your mouth shut and pretend it didn't happen? Chances are, they'll never know. Or do you come right out and tell them, thus risking loosing that loved one? And what if you do loose that loved one over telling the truth? What then?
I'm really having a problem with this. Half the time, I am asked a question. The person asking really doesn't want to hear the truth, but I feel like dirt when I lie. So I tell the truth and I've ended up loosing people over the truth. Sometimes I lie. Then I can't sleep, because I feel that I have cheated them. I have begun to think maybe I should just keep my mouth shut about everything. Not tell anyone anything about my life.
What do you think? Email me is you have a comment or suggestion.