"The truth of the matter is..."
That rates right up there with "Honey, I can explain...."
I actually am having a dilly of a time with the whole concept of honesty lately. For example, my better 3/4 and me just adopted a dog, (Lhasa/Maltese mix). It's chilly here now, so we take said canine to Petco, and find a sweatshirt in the right size in the clearance bin. We gather the obligatory "pet house", (Wholy crank! This pup lives better than I do!), organic food, treats,(for training.. she's earned one so far.), and harness/leash. Take everything to the checkout, and realize that we did not get the sweatshirt scanned. I tell the young lady of our error, while Callie is gnawing contentedly on the collar of the sweatshirt. She looks at me, says, "Have you got a buck?" Sure I do. I get a fin from the now much thinner wallet, and hand it to her. She puts it in the donation jar for the local shelter. Now some of y'all are thinkin' this is OK, but the truth of the matter is, our honesty caused a lie. The sweatshirt should have been about 4.00 . The young lady lied to her company, allowing merchandise to leave the store without being paid for, and justified that lie to herself by the "donation" to the local shelter. I'm lying to myself, thinking that they had to have made out on the "Pet Home", so the loss to them on the sweatshirt should be OK; I mean come on.. it was in the clearance bin, it was marked down,... but in reality, not so much. Honesty causes lies; lies encourage others to tell the truth. They both have to exist to give each parameter definition. I like this quote the best" We tell lies when we are afraid... afraid of what we don't know, afraid of what others will think, afraid of what will be found out about us. But every time we tell a lie, the thing that we fear grows stronger. ~Tad Williams
