...And Nothing But The Truth...
I have to admit there are times when truth takes it "on the chin", as it were. We never mean for it to happen, but happen it does. And all too frequently.
Truth is one of those "universal constants" that never wavers, and it can free the close-minded as well as close the free-minded.

Luckily, like ANY good fighter, truth CAN take a punch or two, and whenever it gets knocked off it's feet, it gets right back into it.
I've personally found truth to be a two-edged sword.
When you are right, and KNOW you are right, as well as being able to back it up with facts, it's a bit overwhelming, and can be quite a liberating experience...all at the same time.
It can also piss the hell out of those not willing to accept it, and place you right in someone else's crosshairs.
My late father had another quaint saying (from Mark Twain) about the truth:
"When you speak the truth, you don't have to worry about remembering the depth of the lies you've spoken."
And THAT, my friends is SO true.
How many times have you caught someone in a lie, simply because THEY couldn't keep the lie perpetuated and tripped THEMSELVES up along the way? Memory can do that to people, unless you've got a pocket full of crib notes FOR those lies.
I've gotten into enough bad situations for being HONEST and TRUTHFUL...and so will you.
It's just the "lay of the land", folks.
Still, when all is said and done, you've got a helluva lot fewer regrets because of telling those truths throughout your life, even if some were painful at the time.
And let's face it, we usually have PLENTY of regrets due to bad decisions or missed chances to fill a couple of lifetimes...we certainly don't need MORE, right?
Life can be complex enough without our actively adding even more complexity to it.
One thing that can be said about the truth, is that it makes LIES easier to spot.
Now, I could go on about how most ANY politician will say ONE thing...and then do something completely different...and all "in our best interest" (another lie).
I like to think of political lies like compounding interest on savings...only we don't get to save anything, and the politician certainly doesn't even come close to saving "face".
They will stack lie upon lie, until they have this "landfill" of NON-TRUTH, on which they are sitting at the top.
But it doesn't have to be just in the realm of politics.
We love to lie to OURSELVES, if not others...it's in our nature.
Trouble is, we can't keep our facts straight when doing so, because there are NO FACTS in any lie, just what we have created, and when we contrive something, WE are the ones that have to MAINTAIN it, in order to not be called out on it.
I liken this to an old saying my former pastor used to tell us regarding a good life versus a sinful one. And he prefaced this by saying that many thought the Bible was a book of DON'TS, like don't sin, don't kill, don't covet, when we should be concentrating of what the Good Book teaches us to DO.
My pastor said: "If you're too busy doing the DOs, you DON'T have time to DO the DON'TS."
Now that has always stuck with me.
And so it is with truth.
If you are too busy telling the TRUTH, where can you find the time (and effort) to tell the LIES, hmm?
Yeah...simple.
Yet we have people today whose entire life has been built upon lie, after lie, after lie.
Police officers see this EVERY day.
Some people are actually pretty damn good AT telling the fib, too. I mean, they've been at it for SO long, even THEY get swept up in their own falsehoods, being unable to distinguish fact from fiction.
I hate to be around such people when the "rude-awakening fairy" comes a'calling!
The worst thing is when people lie to your face when you just SAW them do something they immediately deny.
Here's an example:
Little Johnny has been talking in class, and the teacher catches him (he wasn't trying to hide it, and has been disruptive in the past). When the teacher calls him on it, and writes him up, he immediately gets all defensive, and the slew of lies begin. "I was talking to myself", or "I was thinking out loud"...yada, yada, yada...I've heard it all before.
Or how about the drunk swerving down the street, who, when approached by an officer DENIES that he was drinking at all, or states "not that much", as he fails the sobriety test (after several empty beer cans spill from the vehicle) REALLY well.
What about the drug dealer that is found with bags of crack in his pockets (ready for distribution) who claims "These ain't my pants...I borrowed them from a friend"...? I think a "better" choice of friends is definitely in order here.
Yes, there are times when it's perfectly NORMAL to laugh in their faces.
We bow to the absurd.
Will being a truthful person get you ahead in life?
In today's world, don't come to EXPECT it, but be prepared, just in case you DO find someone else that has a similar value system as you do. It's more the exception than the norm these days, but I can see it all turning around sometime soon.
Truth will once again have the value it once held in everyone's life.
But, perhaps you should be more concerned with HOW YOU DEFINE "getting ahead".
If you can look people in the face and speak the truth unflinchingly, YOU come out on top.
You might encounter resistance, but somewhere, someone will admire your grasp of reality.
The best place to begin is within yourself. Be truthful to YOU first...after all, you spend a lot more time with YOU than most anyone else, right? After that, be truthful to those closest around you.
Better still, imbue your children with a sense of truth, and allow them to know that if they do something wrong, but are TRUTHFUL about it, the consequences are a LOT less severe than if they compound that wrong with a LIE on top of it.
That always worked well as I was growing up...saved my backside from the dreaded "double-spanking".
If there is ONE THING you can take from all of this, its that:
TRUTH is FREEDOM and FREEDOM is TRUTH.
Our CREATOR knew that...
Our nation's FOUNDERS knew that...
And WE should know that.
As a free people, we should embrace it, and practice it, as well.
Stay safe out there, America.