The Consequences Of Telling The Truth Ok, I just wanted to say a little something about truth. Most of my thoughts come from the situations I have been through, major or minor. I also get them from the stories of others. Sometimes, I will get specific but for the most part, I like to keep the stories to myself. I was just recently in a situation that had me thinking about the first time a lie has ever been told. This is a gray area because no one can actually know when the first lie was ever told and by which life form. In Christian religions, it is told by Satan. In other religions, it is told by their version of Satan. But just to keep it simple, I thought about it as a lie being told by one human being to another. And I asked myself, Why would this person feel the need to lie? What outcome was this person trying to avoid? So I thought about it and I imagined myself as a person living inThe Land Of Truth. On this land, all is well. No one lies. When you go to the market to make a purchase, the salespeople would tell you the truth about any item you try to purchase. You could ask about the age of the fruit and get the truth. When you asked someone how their day was, you would get a true response...not just Fine, and you? There was no small talk to get rid of an awkward feeling. If people felt awkward, they would say I feel awkward. There was no make-up, muscle enhancers or plastic surgeons. What you saw is what you got. There was no political correctness, but there was no disrespect, because there was no insecure people with bad intentions.There was no politics. There was no need for politics because everyone did what they said they would do. There were no ulterior motives so there was no fine print, terms&conditions, or lengthy contracts written in a hard-to-understand language. There were no pick up lines. If you wanted to get to know someone, you told them. There were no fancy names for overpriced foods. Sushi was raw or uncooked fish, escargot were snails, and caviar were fish eggs. So I was living inThe Land Of Truthand I noticed something about living in truth. Responsibility was king. You had to deal with the consequences of your decisions. If you made the right choice, your rewards were great. If you made the wrong choice then you had to deal with the difficulties that came with making the wrong choice. It was hard on everyone in this land because everyone made a bad decision every now and then. These bad decisions created problems. Sometimes, the problems were simple and easy to fix. Sometimes, they were not. Sometimes it took days, or even weeks to fix a bad decision. So, I pictured a gentleman at the market who owned an orange stand. He sold different types of oranges from different lands. He was a good businessman but a bad money manager. He spent everything he had on his lifestyle. His family was living in above-average conditions and he spent almost every dime he had to maintain his lifestyle. Then, one day he got hit with a stroke of bad luck. A big storm hitThe Land Of Truthcausing devastation and destruction. Bridges were washed out, power lines were down, and trees fell in the roads. The market was hit hard, and all his product was washed away in the storm. He had no reserve product and he was left with nothing. He could not get any new oranges because his main supplier could not make deliveries. Even if he could get deliveries, there was no where for him to set up shop because the market was closed for repairs. He had to wait weeks before everything got back to normal. During these weeks, he watched things change around him. He felt lots of stress in his family life. They had to live below their means for the first time in years. He watched his wife get frustrated by the smallest situations. He had to tell his children no when they wanted new things because there was just no money around. He tried to find work but he was out of luck. He was unskilled labor. All he knew how to do was sell oranges, so he had to compete with the other unskilled laborers looking for work. He watched his life go down slowly. He felt helpless. He tried and tried but still no luck. He felt as if his life was sitting on the sands of an hourglass. All he could do is wait and that is not a good feeling when you are responsible for the lives of other human beings. Slowly but surely, things started getting back to normal. The roads cleared up, and deliveries were made. The market was still being repaired but it was open for business. This gentleman was able to go back to selling oranges and he felt like he had some control again. There was only one problem. Instead of working to maintain his lifestyle, he had to play catch up. So he was in a position where he had to sell every orange he had. For the first 3 weeks, he did well because everyone needed to buy back what they lost. He made enough to give himself some room to breathe. However, as people started to get back on their feet, his orange sales started to slow down, He started to worry. The memory of the discomfort he experienced started to creep up in his head. This worry turned into fear and this fear caused him to make his first irrational decision - which was actually a lie. When his oranges started to get old and lose their color, he would dye them orange to match with the newer batch of oranges. He put the old batch in the front and the new batch in the back. To the customers, all the oranges looked the same but he knew the truth. They were not the same. When the customers asked about the age of his oranges, he would lie about it. He did this for a long time until some customers became suspicious of him. They would ask him harder questions and he would give them an even bigger lie as the answer. Before long, his whole business was based on a lie. He had to keep lying so money would come in everyday. Eventually though, people stopped trusting him. They realized that he was not being truthful inThe Land Of Truth. People saw him for what he was, and it was easy because no one else lied but him. Since there was no word for lie inThe Land Of Truth, he became known as The man who feared reality or The man who feared the unknown. So with this story, I answered my own question. Lies are told because of fear. When we fear the outcome of the truth, we tend to tell a lie so we can avoid the consequences. The problem is that eventually, the truth will come out. It always does because it is hard to maintain a lie. And there are harmless lies like exaggerations in stories. These usually have no effect on people. But when a lie is told that can cause a rational person to make a bad decision, this is when a lie becomes harmful. I am by no means a saint. I am human just like everyone else and I would never expect us all to never lie again. I know that dealing with the consequences of truth can be tough. I also know that harmful lies can break relationships and create bad situations. If a bad situation arises and is revealed, the situation can be dealt with immediately. If a lie is told to cover up this bad situation, it will not be dealt with and the situation will eventually get worse. So if I had to choose between covering up the truth and dealing with it, I think dealing with the consequences of truth is better.
Posted on: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 14:36:47 +0000
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