As the Bible quotes: “the truth shall set you free.” I should have probably referenced this verse when God gave me another chance at life after rolling backwards down a hill onto the main road in Josh Frankowski’s car. However, as the car halted immediately upon gently --and by gently, I mean slightly violently-- touching a stop sign towards the bottom of the hill, the three teens realized the left rear view mirror had been chopped off and stolen by the selfish stop sign.
This is when our acting careers had been launched, I believe. Our time of freak out? Approximately 10:35 PM. We could see the headline then: Joshua Frankowski murdered by his father for amputating the 2008 Frankowski Family Ford Focus.
Thus, the lying game began. We came up with a million different lies --and by a million lies, I mean we had three realistic lies because our story of reaching the top of a hill to enter a fancy-shmancy neighborhood when suddenly the car engine quits to leave us helplessly roll backwards and then conveniently the car starts again once we safely reach the bottom sounds completely ridiculous.
Gathering all we had learned from Disney’s most riveting original masterpiece on the consequences of being a pathological liar, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, we used all three of our “Liar Mary’s” --which is what we nicknamed our emergency lies, or excuses, originating from the iconic line Megan Fox’s character utilizes to attack Lindsay Lohan’s character.
And we chose the dirty truth. What happened was unfortunately true, but still, it sounded too convenient --and the truth is hardly that.
By the time we had made it home in a frazzled frenzy we ultimately decided to do the things that would make all of our parents proud: tell the truth. It was then that the headline to this story was changed to: Three Teens Tell the Truth and One is Accused of Lying.
Unfortunately, it was the truth. I tell this story to --for one-- thus prove to Josh’s parents that we really are that stupid and the car story is indeed the whole truth and nothing but the truth, and I tell this to also introduce the idea of honesty.
Yes, it is great to be honest, but is there such thing as too much honesty?
Of course there is. Just ask my friends, my family, and on the occasion acquaintances. I tend to be fairly upfront and unapologetically truthful for the most part. The tables, therefore, turn; honesty becomes a vice in these situations instead of a product of virtue.
My junior year of high school, I had Mr. Dunn. He always, always, always advised us to tell the truth --even when it is bad. Once, I remember him very clearly explaining to me how telling the truth is always easier, and gets you out of a lot more trouble than you will be in if you lie. That was literally one of his only rules in the class: just be honest.
Honesty is a hard pill to swallow sometimes. The cliche tells us that --yeah-- the truth hurts. Sometimes you have to embrace it, and accept it. And if you are the bearer of truth? It becomes your job to deliver the message.
Sometimes that is even harder than hearing it. Because, what if the truth tangles an even larger web of chaos?
Flashback to my freshmen year of high school, I sat eagerly in English and we read an article about lying. The article posed potential questions on lies, what makes a liar, and how should we define lying.
Truthfully, it was a lot to take it in for my 14 year old mind. Rough.
The author explained that not telling the full truth was a lie, leaving out details in order to waterdown harsh truths was a lie, and that not saying anything when you know the truth was a lie. At that point, I was drowning in confusion, and left thinking, “what’s a lie, really? Are we all liars? Technically, yeah? I think? What rhetorical strategy is this author using? Is this author lying to us? Maybe we are being lied to. I think this is satire? I am a liar.”
Suffice to say, honesty is vulnerable. That’s what makes lying so easy. It is easy to waterdown the truth when it is hard. It is easier to spare someone’s feelings by bandaging the truth up with a lie; it’s as cozy as a blanket. Running away from the truth can become the hitchhike of a lifetime if you are dedicated enough.
But moving forward to my junior year, Mr. Dunn was right about lying. All technicalities aside, it is a lot easier in the end to be honest. You clean up messes before they even start. It’s amazing how that works right?
Sugarcoating doesn’t work when you grow up. It was great for getting medicine to go down when we were little, but at this point in time, you have to learn how to take responsibility for your actions. Accept your honest consequences with dignity. The world around you will thank you later. I can promise you that.
