I’m Honest

Honesty…Is the best policy?

I think it’s quite typical for children to have a hallmark indication of dishonesty. My dad always kept a jar of peanut M&Ms on the counter. Eyeing it was suspicious; taking from it was a grave infraction, and one I never seemed to get away with. One day, when I was eight years old, I took from the jar. To my eyes, it looked untouched, but to my mom’s’, half of the jar was missing.

Twenty minutes later, she called me and my brother to the kitchen. She pursed her lips, and she looked from him to me and back again.

“Did you take Dad’s M&Ms?”, she asked, eyebrows raised.

I kept my composure, as did my brother.

“No, mom. I’m honest,” I told her.

She smiled, then dismissed my brother.

“Mom, I’m honest,” I repeated, and some tears escaped my eyes.

I went to timeout, and the occasion left my memory. Years later, I asked her how she always knew I was lying. She told me it was because I said I was honest. Every time.

This was my hallmark symbol. “I’m honest” was my lie. Truth does not need be stated that it is; truth is the default. It should not be buttressed with evidence or stern faced unless it Is questioned.

Many online claim to have all the answers. Their lifestyle is gospel, their choices the only paved path, and their followers the only enlightened disciples.

This blog will be my gospel, my truth, and my untested ideas to a happy life. Because it’s my first time living, too. So there’s no proof, no evidence that anything I’m going to tell you is true in the slightest.

So yes, I suppose I am lying to you.

Or maybe I’m just saying I’m honest.