Is it possible to live a normal life and never tell a lie?
Not even a little white lie. Why would you want to do this, you ask. Well, think of how much better the world would be if there were no lies.
“Why did you attack my country?”
“I had a bit of bad beef.”
“Why don’t you like me?”
“You are a bit too outgoing for me.”
Think of it. No lies forever. For anything. For anybody. They say the truth hurts, but in the end it hurts less than the lie.
The real reason I’m asking this is because I have been trying over the last years of my life to live a lie-less life. And, I have to admit, it is hard. I think as human being we are programed to lie because we don’t want others to see what we consider the dark, the bad, the weak, inside each of us.
After all, what do little white lies hurt?
“A lovely dress.”
“I love your hair.”
“You did fantastic up there.”
All white lies under the assumption the dress is not lovely, the hair is horrible and the person bombed in front off whatever audience was present. But are they bad, these lies? They spare the other person’s feeling, but at what expense? Would we be better to tell the honest truth each and every time?
I find the white lies coming to my tongue even when I know they are white lies, when I know they are wrong, and when I know the truth would be a better option. It is so much easier to just blur out the white lie and move on. No hurt feeling. No tears. No explaining.
But is it right?
The big lies are something else and I have a much easier time avoiding them. When I make a big blunder, I own up to it and move on, no matter how dark and bad and weak it makes me feel. I can stomach the big stuff, but the little stuff is still too hard. We all want to be liked and accepted. Would we be liked if we always told the truth? In today’s world, I think not.
Sadly, it is true. We don’t want people who tell us the honest truth. We want the white lies and the mis-truths, the lies of omission. Who wants to be told their dress is horrible or their hair is a wreak or they bombed.
I don’t. Do you?
So then how do we handle the little white lies? Because in the end, they do hurt us. Eventually we find out the truth and it hurts. Truth or not, we don’t always want the truth. It is more comfortable, in the moment, to live with the white lie.
But, what would it be like? To live in a lie-less world. Would we hate each other more or less? Would we fight more or less? Would we kill each other at the alarming rate of the modern world?
We will never know the answers to these questions until, if, we banish all the lies. It is a beautiful dream. Do you think it is possible?
