I once said that I had a glass heart. You can see right through it. Years ago, I shattered that heart to set someone free. I've done my best to rebuild it, but it's like sewing up a wound you can't quite reach... you really need someone else to do it.
There's a funny thing about truth you should all know. If someone asks me a question they won't like the answer to, I try not to twist the truth or tell white lies. I always ask "That depends. Would you prefer the truth or a lie?" Their response is always "The truth of course!". This is, of course, a lie. No one likes to hear truth when it hurts. No one likes to hear they're wrong, or harsh truths like "you're a bit overweight", "you smell. bad.", "you're acting like a fool."
These things are no less true because you don't want to hear them. This is why we are taught to be tactful. This is why we dance around each other. More importantly, this is why we play our games of he said she said, double talk, half truths and outright lies.
Even more important is how we react to truth. I believe what I believe. That is my truth. You believe what you believe. I had a conversation with someone once. I told them I had a problem with what they were doing, and laid out my argument as to why. The topic at hand was not a cut and dry black and white topic, mind you. Their response to every single one of my arguments was "I feel you're wrong. I think I'm right. I think this, I feel that, I want it to be this way so it is." Unfortunately, we are no longer friends because they refused to hear the truth of my words.
You may be wondering how my truth was any better than what they felt, and what they believed. My truth was no better. It was still truth. The problem arose not from their disbelief of my truth, but of refusing to even consider my truth. Therein lies most of our social problems. No one asks "Why do you feel that way?", and even more often, when asked "Why do you feel that way?" can't come up with an answer beyond "I feel its right".
Sometimes, that's all that's needed, that you feel it's right. Other times...
I once did what I felt was right. I shattered my heart to free someone. I regret that choice every day. At the moment I did it, it felt right. It felt like the best course of action. If I had talked it over with one other person, maybe I'd have seen it from a different point of view and seen how terrible that truth was.
There is great power in truth. With that, as we all know, comes great responsibility.
I would rather be the friend that did or said what you needed me to, rather than the friend that did or said what you wanted me to.
Still. Sometimes withholding small truths are better courses of action than shouting it to the world. There are no absolutes when it comes to people. Life is not mathematical, as much as I wish it were. Love is not logical, though sometimes it can mistaken for logic. I don't speak of just romantic love here, I speak of friendships, of parent child relationships.
We've always been told that honesty is the best policy. Why, then, are we nearly always punished for telling truths?
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