It's true. I'd read a statistic long ago that claimed "EVERYONE LIES".
"Huh?", I thought. I'd been raised to always tell the truth and so, I just did. It defined me: honest~at all times.
But after I heard that stat, it got me thinking, "Well, if everyone IS lying, why the hell am I always telling the truth?"
Thus began my downward spiral. First, it was fibs; then, white lies, then, outright lies.
I convinced myself that sometimes a half-truth is less harsh. After all, I'm saving the recipient from a painful reality, if, for example I fib about why I didn't show up at a social function.
Is it not kinder to say, "I fell ill" than to claim, "I just didn't feel like going"?
When it matters most, there's no option but to tell the truth. However, when it's a fine line between "nicety and necessity", so too, an obligation to honesty.
If I believe the statisticians, apparently everybody else already gets that.
