okay - I have to say I find this thread interesting. But truth isn't always so black and white either. What I think today, may be different tomorrow, or next week.
I may not feel safe telling the truth either. [lack of courage? perhaps but I'm not talking about my own emotional saftey but that of another] I had a situation like that come up not too long ago - where I honestly felt like telling it like it is would be a very very harmful thing for everyone involved. I didn't lie though, I simply didn't answer. But if I had been forced to answer, I would have really had to scramble to find a way to change the subject or something, cause there was just no way I was going to "out with it" in the particular circumstances I found myself in. You may say I am arrogant to decided what another person can and cannot handle, and perhaps I am. But there was more than one person's safety at issue in this particular circumstance. I am responsible for what I say and I try to take that seriously. Our words can have a profound effect on other people.
Truth is fairly easy when we are talking about how a new hair style or outfit. But when it comes to other subjects, sometimes the "black and white" truth of what we think is not so simple. Sometimes we don't know ourselves yet what we think and need time to think it through. Sometimes we are corned into saying things we don't really mean - my ex used to do that too me. He would hound me and hound me and no amount of begging and pleading would make him stop until I told him what he wanted to hear, regardless of whether it was true or not.
And though I now know better - there was definitely a time in my life when I would and did lie in an attempt to spare someone else's feelings. I don't think that makes me a bad person. My actions were wrong, but my motives were not. Life has taught me that in the long run, that often hurts people more than the up front truth would have, but until I learned that lesson the hard way, I simply didn't know that.
