Quick side note: Friendship is Magic is a flash-animated cartoon that airs on the Hub network. It's a great show that is really overstepping its target audience. If you don't already know why people are talking about this, look here. If you want to know why I personally like the show, you'll have to wait till I get to the element of laughter.
Honesty after break!
Let's see.. Honesty... Good time for a dictionary definition? I agree!
Dictionary.com has this to say of honesty:
Noun
1. the quality or fact of being honest; uprightness and fairness.
2. truthfulness, sincerity, or frankness.
3. freedom from deceit or fraud.
A lot of synonyms here, huh? I'll be using some of this later.
We're all generally familiar with the idea of honesty. We know what being truthful and sincere is just like we know what it is to lie or be insincere. It's a lession learned early in life, even if the application of the idea "the right thing to do is to be honest" is, at times, difficult or even complicated. I'm not going to lie (honesty), being honest can be hard, it can even be the wrong thing to do at times. More on that later.
Let's start with the most simple application of honesty, shall we? Honesty is important - crucial - in dealing with and relating to friends and loved ones. I'll be using this idea fairly often so I may as well introduce it now: Honesty is respect. The more you respect someone, the more honest you will be with them. The more honest you are with someone, the more respect you will show them. This is, perhaps, never more important than with friends and loved ones. Your friends want you to respect them. It's a basic principle of friendship. Be honest with your friends and loved ones. Simple, right? Yes, I know it can get more complex than that. I'll talk about that later. For now, just understand that it's of critical importance that you continue to be honest with and respect the people you care about.
I'd like to talk for a moment about the people you don't like. You know who I'm talking about. We live on the Internet, right? There are closed-minded or annoying people that you (and I) just don't like; they're everywhere out here. There are people in your life (IRL) that you just can't stand. Do they deserve honesty? Not always. Should you still be honest with them? Of course! The most obvious reason is that you have to always start from a place of respect, despite how little respect you may normally have for someone for any reason. "Be the better man" does get tiring, but it's extremely important. I'll put it this way: in any disagreement I have no issue with yelling or swearing. Obviously it depends on the severity of the argument, but in an intense argument these things can serve as punctuation to show how important your ideas are to you. But never, never, be dishonest when communicating with someone you don't like. The moment you have to alter facts to prove something you believe to anyone, you compromise yourself and your beliefs, regardless of if your dishonesty is discovered. I seriously, strongly urge anyone reading this to try (and it is hard, of course) to value your own beliefs more than the satisfaction of besting someone you don't like. As a show of solidarity, I promise to always conduct myself in the same manner. If you ever catch me acting otherwise, please call me on it.
Whew, that was heavy, wasn't it? Let's all catch our breaths. The worst is over, but there's still some tough things on the way. Ready? Ok, moving on.
It's time to talk about the complexities of being honest. I said earlier that sometimes being honest is the wrong move. I know most people don't like politics, and this is exactly why. More politicians should be honest than generally are, of course, but dealing with so many different people around the world with different cultures and opinions, many of them very passionate and - subsequently - dangerous, means you have to not disclose the whole truth, even lie, with notable regularity. It's unfortunate, but it's true. I'll bring things closer to home. People you care about. I'll address the idea of a white lie here. I do believe that sometimes, in order to protect the people you care about, you have to lie. As far as the virtues of being honest are concerned, of course it's better to help and protect those you care about than to constantly be honest. Again, this is an unfortunate consequence of the reality we live in, but a real one. And yes, not telling someone something is being dishonest. The definition above lists "freedom from deceit or fraud." A lie of omission is deceitful, no matter how you look at it. So sometimes situations arise where the consequences of being honest are objectively worse than those of being dishonest. Honesty is wonderful and critical to one's growth as a person, but it can be a minefield at times. Sorry, AJ...
So how do we navigate this minefield? Well, we all know when difficulties arise, and I believe we're all fairly adept at handling situations in which being honest may not be ideal. But I want to be able to handle these situations to the absolute best of my ability, and I think the answer lies in what I'd call the most elusive form of honesty: being honest with oneself. We all lie to ourselves or try to fool ourselves. I do it all the time. But being honest with yourself is clearly a huge step to being as healthy, as level-headed, and as fair as you can be. In order to best negotiate the world around you, you have to be able to communicate with yourself. It's that simple. I still, as I said, struggle with being honest with myself all the time, but it's so important to always be able to come to yourself for advice. No one can understand you like you can, so listen to yourself sometime.
Ahhh... That was a journey, wasn't it? Of course the importance of being honest as much as possible can never be understated, and I figure that as long as we're trying our best we'll be ok. After all, there's nothing more we can ask of ourselves.
I'll likely be doing kindness next week, so that'll be great. I have a Facebook page if you want to get a hold of me. Anyone who reads this, hopefully I'll hear from you soon. Take care of yourselves!
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