When we are little truth is so easy. Your teacher
holds a blue ball and says, “This ball is blue.” Hey!
That’s true! Then, he or she holds up a red ball and
says, “This ball is blue.” Hey! It is not…that ball is
red, so that is not true. When it comes to truth in
that sense, it’s a pretty easy concept. Then, as you
get older and experience life, you realize that the
word true can be used in many different contexts, and
that truth is actually much more subjective, and much
less black and white. We learn that lying has
consequences, so we tell the truth. However, by
telling the truth we learn that the truth has
consequences too. Even though “honesty is the best
policy,” we learn rather quickly that there is such a
thing as “brutal honesty,” and that sometimes the truth
is hard to handle. Through my own experiences I have
said many times, “I wish they would just be honest with
me,” and “I would rather just know the truth.” Even
though knowing the truth may be better than not knowing
the truth, it doesn’t change the fact that sometimes
“the truth hurts” and you’re never prepared for what is
going to happen when it’s all laid out.
I’ve learned over the years that truth
changes. One day the Atkins diet is not good for you,
the next it’s good for the heart and helps you lose
weight. One day Sam doesn’t like Jenny, and the next
day they’re dating and completely in love. One day
you’re best friends with someone, and the next day they
don’t like you anymore, or vise versa. It’s a wonder
we all aren’t completely confused. It’s something that
we’ve all adapted to though. It seems, generally
speaking, we’ve become skeptical and untrusting.
Everything gets questioned and doubted; nothing is
taken for what it is, but rather analyzed, discussed,
debated, analyzed again, and finally accepted as being
true or filed under hoax, false, fake, fiction, etc.
It’s like we all have our guards up and are on the
defense, so that we don’t get blindsided.
Along the same lines as truth changing,
truth is something that is different to different
people. I would say that it’s true that mushrooms are
good, but I can name a few people right off the top of
my head who would definitely say “mushrooms are good”
is a completely false statement. Some people would say
that it’s true that Demi Moore is a good actress;
however, I would have to say that is false. Things
such as that kind of make truth a difficult thing to
teach and explain.
I have a daughter, who will be two in July,
and I have thought a few times already how I am going
to teach to her the concept of truth. There are some
things that are relatively easy, like the ball example
in the beginning of this paper that I think I can
handle. It’s the grey area of truth that I am
concerned about. I definitely what for her to grow up
being an honest and trustworthy person, but I think it
might be difficult to instill that, when you know there
may be mixed reactions to complete and total honesty.
I don’t want her going around telling people who ask
her what she thinks about their shirt, that it’s the
ugliest think she has ever seen, but I also don’t want
her to take up the idea of little white lies to save
people’s feelings, because in my experience little
white lies can turn into big lies. Plus, also in my
experience, when you tell a little white lie to
someone’s face, chances are you tell what you really
think to someone else, and then you run the risk of the
truth getting out, and of it not being straight from
you. Then, you’re caught in a lie, look kind of bad,
and can either dig deeper into the hole you’ve just dug
yourself, or be honest and face the music. Funny how
“the truth will set you free,” but is somehow very
complicated and complex. It’s like the famous, “do I
look fat in these jeans,” question that women tend to
ask. Though it’s usually asked in an effort to dig for
a compliment, there is always the chance that the
answer you get, may not be the one that you were
looking for. Then what? Do you get mad because you
asked a question, and got an honest answer? Were you
really prepared for an honest answer to begin with?
It’s almost as though we all live in a
pseudo reality. We are free of the burden of honesty,
and truth because people have become so concerned about
everyone’s feelings and wanting to look and be nice.
So, we all go around being nice and looking nice, and
in actuality probably talking a lot about people behind
their backs. This, in reality, really isn’t being
honest at all. People who are honest, truthful, and
say what they mean are called “cold” or “mean” or
“bitchy.” It’s always made me wonder if I know the
real person, or if I know the person that the
individual wants me to know, or thinks I want to know.
There’s a saying, “put your best face forward,” which
is pretty accurate. It’s really easy to hide our
“true” colors, and be a chameleon of sorts, acting the
way we think people want us to act, or the way we want
people to see us.
What is truth? What is true? Some things
we think we know are true, and later we discover they
weren’t true at all. Other things we doubt as true, or
question the honesty and integrity of, and later are
proven to be right on. The whole idea of truth,
truisms and being true is much more complex than one
might think. The dictionary has 7 definitions under
the word true, which is followed by other words
relating to true, such as: truism, trust, trustworthy
and truth. Though the words can be easily defined in
writing, defining them through life is not as simple.