Remember when we were young? Our parents taught us not to steal, cheat and especially lie to others. Our parents always told us to tell the truth always, especially if you were caught doing some illegal stuff and it's better to confess truthfully than to lie. If not, our parents would come out with some superstitions mumbo-jumbo stuff saying that our nose would grow longer if we lie like Pinocchio in the fairy tales.
However, as we grow older, the truth seems to take a back seat. Our parents tell us not to tell the truth to others, especially if the other party could not handle it. Why not, we asked during our teens? Why can't we tell our Aunt Betty that she is too ugly or tell Uncle George to go and take a shower because he stinks up the room? No, our parents said, "It's rude to insult other people and it's not courteous." Eh...so it's courteous for them to make a stench in the room and not courteous for us to just tell them the truth?
During our interview, the advice given would be to always blow your own trumpet...even if you don't have one. Tell your interviewers that you did a lot of impressive stuffs as written in your resume, have lots of experience when you have none, or even boost about your personality and your interest for the job when you don't even like it.
Why it is that people can't handle the truth when it is shoved right to them? Why, as we grow older, try to hide the truth with many layers of facade instead of just being upfront about it? Why we can't tell our bosses how we actually feel being overworked instead of just grimacing and complaining behind their backs?
I know it's difficult to tell someone the truth or even difficult for someone to handle the truth. I remembered during the times when I was still in NS working as a clerk and there was one female admin supervisor who is the worst person that anyone would work with. She played office politics shrewdly and use her skills such as apple polishing to win over her superiors. However, when dealing with her own subordinates and fellow colleagues, she acted as if she is the boss and wants to do things her way and sometimes even got into arguments with them over minor issues. To her superiors, she is the role model worker that anyone could ask her for. To her subordinates, she is the wicked witch of the East who will always create trouble in the office when there is none. I suppose, as everyone might suggest, is to keep my mouth shut and just worked under her. But no, I told her bluntly the truth that she is a hypocrite. She said that I was rude and insubordinate to her and threatened to report me.
I guess in our life, truth is something that we want to hide from others. Sometimes, we lie to our friends to prevent them from hurting. Sometimes we tell a white lie to our parents to prevent them from worrying. Other times, our parents lie to us so that we could have a better childhood than they had. Or perhaps protect us from the societal problems and issues that we innocently do not know. During school, our teachers lie so as to encourage us to study better and be more optimistic. In working life, we lie to our bosses so as to retain our jobs. Our bosses lie to us so as to ensure that we keep working under them. We have an American President who lied to his fellow citizens so as to engage a war. The world today we lived in as all a pack of lies. It is like a deck of cards stacking up to form a pyramid at the top. Who will be the one who will pull a card from the base, causing the whole foundation to crash down?
The light of the truth can be harsh to those who have been in the dark. During the olden times, Plato wrote about prisoners who lived their whole lives in a cave and were chained in place. Sometimes a fire will be there which throws shadows against the wall in front of them. That's all they ever see during the time in prison. They have no reason to believe there's more to the world. However when they are released and stepped out into the light for the first time, their eyes hurt. Once they adjusted to the light, then they found reason to hope for better future. Yes, sometimes, truth hurts. No, in fact truth always hurts. However, once we are adjusted to the truth, we will find it more acceptable to deal with it. So it's up to us to turn on the switch so that others may see the truth of light...yup even though it hurts initially.
