I've long been a believer of Truth. The idea, as I see it, is that if you give someone the truth nobody can hold a lie against you. That doesn't mean, of course, that I don't lie. I do. We all do. We have to, in order to get by with all the other people, liars, that we see and deal with day to day. Not all lies are ultimately bad. It all depends on the reason behind the lie, as all actions depend upon reason. If we do something for a right reason, it's right. If we do something for the wrong reason, than not so much.
But how do we decide right and wrong. And what if we are incorrect? Well, for the first I have no answer. Which is to say, I have no answer for you. I know how I decide right and wrong. It's convoluted, messy, but for the most part it gets that job done. But that still doesn't mean I don't make mistakes. We all do. And with good reason. Nobody's perfect. The more we try, the bigger we're likely to screw up. Holding yourself accountable for those times when you messed up: that is important. But perhaps more important is figuring out why, and how not to do it again in the future.
Number 2 is where the Truth comes in. It is what makes it so difficult. If I lie to myself, certainly, it makes it impossible for me to learn from my mistakes. But if someone else lies, it is equally impossible. And "lie" is so often taken to be an active word. But in truth, omission is also lying. If we fail to freely give the important details, if they must be pried from us, than eventually or immediately, we have lied.
I strive to learn and tell the Truth as best as I can. As well as I'm able. Sometimes reaching Truth might even require a lie, although that is, as all things, conditional. There are more and less important things to be truthful about, regardless of what we are taught about "little white lies" and all of that nonsense. But there is a cool, serene truth about lying: Using our lies as a buffer, as we always have, has made us soft. Many of us are unwilling to accept the truths that we hide from. All of us eventually hide from truths that we know. Everybody lies, as Greg House would say. And, in that one instance at least, he was speaking the Truth.
