telling the truth

Although I didn’t have a particularly religious upbringing, I am driven by an imperative to always tell the truth. In an extreme situation, to protect another or avoid sudden death or injury I would be quite willing to lie and I can spin out a lie for comic effect so long as I can reveal the truth at the denouement and I’m not teasing someone cruelly with it. The occasional ‘white lie’ is possible although even that gives me pangs of unease so dishonesty is something I will go to great pains to avoid even if it might seem to make for an easier life. Certainly, I find it chronically painful to sustain dishonesty and the closer I am to someone, the more difficult it is.

I am, however, quite adept at sniffing out a lie though this ‘talent’s’ usefulness is slightly diminished because I don’t like confrontation and, because such a discovery often upsets me, I will sometimes try to ignore it, clinging to the hope that I will be proved wrong. The latter has not happened though I have ended up being conned on a number of a occasions because I have so desperately wanted to have my intuition proved wrong.