http://fineartamerica.com/featured/honesty-visionary-art-by-sharon-cummings-sharon-cummings.html
Ask most people if they are honest and they will say “yes” with absolute conviction. We as a people like to think that we have integrity and morals. In the larger picture, that may be true. After all the majority of the population obey the rules and stay out of jail. We work hard and raise our children to be upstanding citizens. We pay our taxes. We live an honorable life.
But the truth is (pun intended) that we tell “little” lies all of the time. We convince our little ones that there is this person called Santa Claus. We tell our friends we have other plans when we just do not feel like going out to dinner with them. We call in sick to work when what we really want is a day off. And we tell our mate we had a salad for lunch when we really had a cheeseburger in order to avoid conflict. And one of the biggest lies we all tell is that we are “fine” when someone asks how we are doing when we really feel horrible. In fact, we are a lying culture because it is much more acceptable to be polite than sincere.
Where am I going with all of this? I honestly do not know, except to explore just how complex our ethics really are. We are taught that lying is wrong, but we are also taught that you shouldn’t hurt people. The truth hurts sometimes….so we avoid it. Because the lesser of two evils is to spare someone’s feelings. Or is it to spare our own? Conflict avoidance seems to be one of the biggest triggers for dishonesty.
In my own life, I try to avoid doing things that I would need to lie about to the people I love. My child was also never subjected to the “stork” and Santa Claus was “The Christmas Spirit”. But am I 100% honest?
My newest piece above titled “Honesty” is. 🙂
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