Everyday Canvas

That Exact Truth

Prompt: “Examine your words well, and you will find that even when you have no motive to be false, it is a very hard thing to say the exact truth, even about your own immediate feelings.” George Eliot
Why is telling the exact truth so difficult? Your thoughts…

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Finding the exact truth has to be finding the needle in a haystack, even though we all honor truth and try to be truthful as much as we can. But what is the exact truth? Sometimes that is an iffy thing. Something happens with several people watching it and each person adds to, subtracts from, or changes a thing or two when trying to tell what they’ve seen. This means even our eyes aren’t totally reliable and the exact truth of that situation is a mystery.

Even when we tell the truth, and we do try because we all worship the truth, we cannot be 100% sure of it. It has to be, therefore, truth as we see it.

In addition, there are those circumstances when we lie to ourselves and do not have the gumption to admit to it. Then, there are those white lies we tell to everyone else so we won’t hurt their feelings or we don’t want them to think poorly of us.

Still, telling the truth, at least as much as we can come close to it, is the way to go. Besides, telling the truth as much as we are able to has a side benefit. It is called self-respect.