Honesty is the great unrecognized, dishonored virtue.

The truth, politically speaking is seen as almost irrelevant. In fact, telling
the truth is generally regarded as naive unless it just happens to correspond
with what is politically appealing.

Truth in advertising is an oxymoron. Enough said about that.

And so we have these models of behavior parading before us constantly. The truth
becomes something that is used if useful, discarded if it doesn't serve a
particular purpose.

In conversations I often find that the truth is totally ignored. Most people
don't really want to get to the bottom of a question. They prefer to move on and
score points in some other way.

This is a spiritual challenge.

I need to be around people who practice honesty at the deepest levels, people
who value the truth.

That's the real spiritual question: Is honesty to be honored?

I wonder what the connection is between the two words, honesty and honor? They
begin pretty much the same. Do they have the same root?

Ah yes, they do. They are the same, from the Latin honos, meaning virtue.

Do I need to be able to figure out when I should be honest, or is it something I
can just be all the time and not worry about it?

Trick question: Should we tell someone we don't like their shirt?

Answer: Only if they ask, and then, yes.


Emanations
Copyright © 2007 by John MacEnulty,
5/17/08, St. Louis, MO

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