The Funny Thing about Honesty

They always say don't lie. That even not telling the truth - the whole truth- is as good as a lie. What if you lie for a reason? What if you leave them in the dark to spare their feelings? What if it may turn out that your lie was inconsequential, that because of new information the thing you didn't tell turned out not to be true after all.

The fear then is, what if with new information the thing you didn't tell becomes much bigger?  Somethings you just can't hide. It would be like living a double life, it would be like missing in action... There's no way it would go unnoticed. Not that the secret you were hiding would be obvious but there would be suspicion, it would take more lies more secrets a bigger cover story.  The stress of the cover would drive you crazy.  Maybe you won't want to keep the secret anymore, maybe it would become too hard. maybe they have a right to know... Or is it selfish to want to tell?

That's the funny thing about honesty. Who are we honest for? Ourselves or our loved ones. Really, who are we helping by sharing bad news? We are merely taking the burden off ourselves, and unloading it on someone else. They can't help, they can't fix the problem. They only suffer for knowledge of it.

 But what if you had to tell? What if your weakness ate at you until you could contain that secret no more. And after all that time had passed, they knew you hid it, they knew you lied? Does it make the truth worse, does it make it harder to face? How do you take back a lie?

 Do you pray it just doesn't come true? Burying your head in the sand wont make things go away, but maybe there's a chance it will work itself out. Maybe you get all worked up over nothing and not sharing the information will only save them from needless concern. Shouldn't you wait until you have all the facts? Or is it cruel, now that you've said it's safe that it's fine, to blind side them later, when you had the chance to warn them in now...