I know I know - is that a catchy play on words or what? I actually made that up - well it just popped into my head as a result of a text conversation I was having with a friend of mine.
But, in Truth, pardon the pun, it's been a recurring theme in my Life - not because I have any personal ownership of it but because it seems to be a Core Characteristic - one of those things I just can't get away from or hide.
I can probably count on one hand the number of times I haven't been truthful in my life and on those same counts, I can count the number of times things turned out bad because I abandoned the Truth for what I thought, at the time, was some overriding, self-serving or self-defending outcome.
You see I don't have a very good Poker Face. I can't hide my feelings when something or someone pisses me off and I don't try to think of 7 different approaches for diplomatically stating my feelings so that I save the feelings of another person.
For me, the Truth simply stated - and I will use words like Direct and Open - is a Sacred and Necessary thing in my Life.
I hold the Truth to be self-evident because it gives me certain inalienable rights -
Like knowing WTF I'm up against and who I'm dealing with - in Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.
We live in a society where TMI is a cute acronym that makes you sound so judicious and ethically and behaviorally restrained and proper in your delivery of information.
As far as I'm concerned, there's no such thing as TMI, as long as it's the Truth.
Let's take an example of meeting and getting to know someone in a social situation - like a date or dating.
If you have certain characteristics, perspectives, viewpoints, lifestyles, strengths, weaknesses - I think you should let the other party know as soon as possible what those things are.
And I don't mean - oh I like music or hiking or dogs or whatever.
I'm talking about things that define who and what you are and what you aren't and what you can and can't put up with.
I tell people right up front - I can't deal with incompetence, I cuss a lot, whatever you do - Don't do the Socratic Method on me, and I, on rare occasions, have issues with Anger Management - and I'll tell them how to avoid "Pushing my Button".
Which is like waving a red flag in front of a bull - I mean isn't that stupid - that People will actually set out to do what you ask them not to do.
And then they're all shocked and dismayed when the Bull charges and runs over their ass.
So yeah - sometimes the Truth is Brutal.
But for the most apart, the Truth saves Time, Effort and Money.
I was talking to this one lady the other day and in the course of the conversation, she revealed she didn't cook, drank a lot and was bi-sexual. Ok - that's 3 no-go's for me.
And I remember another first date conversation where the lady explicitly stated that she was only interested in men with big dicks. Uh yeah - let me disqualify myself ma'am.
And then there's the lady where "I Love You" meant I just want to fuck you and have you as an on-call escort and companion when I come into town. It took me a while to figure that one out but the Truth always comes out - sooner or later.
"I'm there for you" - when it's convenient for me and doesn't take up too much of my time - oh and I didn't realize you want me to be there for you like 4, 5 or 40 days in a row. Had that little Truth lie to me a few times too.
"I don't do Sarcasm" - that's a good one for me to know because in the Sarcasm blood type, I am O-Positive.
And then there's those things that aren't True, but People perceive to be True - there's that Confirmation Bias thing again.
I can't tell you how many times that people have assumed that just because I'm an Engineer that I'm an Anal Retentive Left-Brained Only Rigid Asshole.
I'll claim Asshole but none of the other is True.
Or that because I come from Texas I am a Two-Stepping Trump Supporting Conservative.
The Truth is I don't like Two-Stepping or any other structured dancing that requires a prescribed step pattern and I am Conservative about some things and Liberal about others. And am basically apolitical and ambivalent about politics in general.
The Truth is that I have a lot fewer Social filters than most people when it comes to speaking the Truth which has gotten me in trouble quite a few times but kept me out of trouble 20 times that.
And because I'm smarter than the average stump and have an acute attention for detail, I can usually figure out what's coming at me -
The Truth or a True Lie.
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