I was about to take my siesta earlier, when a random thought suddenly pop out in my head. Thus instead of lying down in my bed to enjoy an afternoon sleep. I ended up opening my laptop and started tapping my keyboard to write this article. I hope you like it.
As early as possible children are taught within their homes about the various good morals and right conduct that they must possess as an upright person. Such as being kind to the in need, being polite and respectful to the elders as well as being truthful all the time. By the time that they start attending school, their teachers who also functions as their second parent puts great emphasis on teaching these children about the importance of good moral and right conduct. However as these children grow and develop their own understanding as well as thinking. These so called good morals and right conduct somewhat varies.
When we were little we are taught about “honesty is the best policy” But guess what? Flash news people lie from time to time. We utter lies not just to the people around us, but including towards ourselves. We lie on how tasty the food we just ate, when in reality we had a hard time chewing and swallowing the food. For we don’t want to hurt the person who exert great effort towards cooking and preparing for a supposed great meal. We lie about how we are doing greatly recently. When in reality we are too exhausted from all the misfortunes that had happened to us lately. For we don’t want to add the worries and burden that our parents are carrying on their shoulders. We even lie towards ourselves that we are okay and everything will be okay, when in reality we are just barely holding on and everything are slowly crumbling. For we want to remain strong and optimistic. These are just few of the times that we had lied to the people around us and towards ourselves.
A friend even told me way back then during an intimate gathering “lying isn’t really that bad. It only depends to what extent that we lie that makes it bad” he even added “lying is part of being human, no matter how we wanted to live a righteous life. There would be a point in our lives were all the words that would be coming out from our mouth are all made of lies”. I respected his opinion and though on this matter, for at some point I believe that he got a great point. Just as what I had mentioned on the second paragraph of this article “people lie from time to time” and for sure majority of the world’s population had lied. Maybe just once or twice or a hundred of times in their entire life by now.
People had even come to a point where they categories lying by different colors. Such as white lies, which are altruistic. Since we do it to avoiding hurting as well as to help and please another person. There is also what we call a grey lie. Which we express to help ourselves as well as to help other people as well. Next is a red lie. Which is a lie that we tell out of rage, betrayal, injustice and revenge. We often tell this kind of lie to cause harm to another person, even at the expense that it might cause us harm as well. Another kind of lie, is a black lie. Which is the worst kind of lie, since it is driven by pure selfishness. A person tell this kind of lie for their personal sake. Either for them to avoid getting harm or for them to gain what they desire. Without minding the impact it might cause to the people around them. It seems like lying is truly part of human nature. No matter how we try to disagree and convince ourselves that it is not for it causes values conflict. But then again if we try to list down the times we had to lie for no apparent reasons and for the times that we badly needed to utter a lie for a reason. Then therefore, lying is truly indeed part of being human.
But then again as I write this article, I had taught to myself if we lie too often to avoid causing pain and worries as well as to make ourselves feel better. Then I guess that is the point that we should pause, assess and evaluate if what we are doing is still okay or not. If we keep on lying on how tasty the food we just ate, when in reality we had a hard time chewing and swallowing the food. For we don’t want to hurt the person who exert great effort towards cooking and preparing the said meal. Then do you think you can handle eating that same kind of food for the rest of your life? Do you think that person’s cooking skills will progress if you keep giving him/her fake complements? I guess not. Another thing if we often lie just to make other people worry less on us, do you think they would stay calm once they know how we had truly been and worst when it is too late to help us. I guess not. Last but not the least if we will keep on lying on ourselves just to uplift our state of mind, then to tell you frankly you are not. Sometimes it is best to be true with our self, rather than covering it with lie. For it is when we truly address our situation that makes it easier to accept it, and maybe find a better way to address it.
As the saying goes “all excess is harmful”, especially lying. Yes, we all lie but we must remember that there must be a limitation that we must established. A limitation that we must established as a reminder to what extent we should utter lies. Not just for ourselves, but also to the people around us as well.
✒️ thegirlwholeaptthroughtime || 020921
