trying to be honest

“So, here I sit, exhausted from trying always to be right I have rather opted towards just trying to be honest.” – me

The goal of life is surely not to be right. Considering all the evidence before me I have concluded for myself that this is clearly unattainable. After having disqualified ourselves so effectively as a species perhaps we should settle for a far less inflated target or rather perhaps one far more attainable and realistic?

The description used in the subtitle for my blog was originally birthed out of significant personal brokenness and not much intentional wisdom.  However, over time I have come to see how meaningful and appropriate it has become for me.

Pretty boy David Lee Roth (ex-front man for the rock band “Van Halen”) is reputed to have said, “It’s not whether you win or lose, … it’s how good you looked.” I find this hilarious but suggest that it could easily be hi-jacked for perhaps slightly more noble ends.  So, why not we re-landscape his hedonistic philosophy to – “It’s not whether you are right or wrong, … it’s how much honesty you can access.”

Although it might sound like it, this is not at all an easy task in the complex social order we have concocted over the millennia. We are so constantly bombarded with data of all types and from every angle that as a species we seem to suffer from a chronic identity crisis.  Most of us don’t know what we ourselves think or believe anymore.  We seem to be tossed around and swept by winds of pop fads and the deceptive whiles of the media and political spin doctors we have elevated to god status in our lives. What we do believe seems to be what we are told to believe through the seductive bombardment of media and cultural groupings.

On a more alarming front however, a thought that has come to me is that maybe we cannot but be honest. Perhaps it is the case that even when we are being intentionally devious or unethical, possibly displaying very little moral character or integrity we are displaying what we actually are?  Maybe honesty leaks out of us whether we know it or not?  We may think that we are being successful in our deviousness but could it be that in so doing we are clearly telegraphing our real condition?  One can polish an apple but the proof is in the eating and we cannot worm out of that one.  One does not need to have the medical reasons for food poisoning to register its presence in our bodies. Even if we are in denial sickness will reveal it’s symptoms and clearly we are manifesting symptoms of note in our world today.

So maybe all we can do is engage with life and do the best we can to deal with what comes out.

Social appropriateness doesn’t help. My view is that the most socially appropriate amongst us are the most scary – possibly even closer to ‘insane’ than the worst asylum inmate. Yet everything in our society seems to press us to conform.

Maybe the real solution is worthship – extending real worth to others, ourselves, and our surroundings, actively engaging and examining our actions and responses to the world with honesty and respect.

Nothing happens in isolation.  As big or as little as it may be it has a context and a history. To engage with this honestly is possibly our only hope.

So, in as much honesty as I can muster I’m still at it … in pursuit of the beautiful question…..

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