Optimism with Honesty - Nov 09
Optimism with Honesty
November 2009
We are becoming more honest. It’s a slow process. We have lied to each other for thousands of years. Our lies extend their insidious reach far beyond our personal lives. An increasingly honest approach to life will make a difference in the years to come.
That probably makes me an optimist, but two things help me feel okay about it. First, if we don’t start practicing a deeper and richer form of honesty, well, we and the children are doomed – and I don’t want believe that will happen. Second, my personal experience tells me we are becoming more honest.
Some people are waiting for Armageddon to settle our affairs for us. I’m more inclined to think we are given the choice to clean up after ourselves, and that Armageddon is more a warning than an inevitable end. I’m also inclined to think that not making an effort to change ourselves, Armageddon or not, is somehow missing the whole point of being alive.
Honesty is increasingly necessary, yet honesty is scary. Sometimes honesty requires a willingness to risk everything just to get the words spoken in public. The very democratic foundation upon which our country was built has created the world’s greatest opportunity for a safe environment to foster honesty. And that opportunity is spreading quickly among the world’s nations.
While things may still seem messy, only a little over 225 years have passed since Britain recognized the independence of the USA. Since then honesty has prevailed to acknowledge that the pain of slavery is wrong and that women should have the right to vote.
Our nation has found the honesty to acknowledge that discrimination in employment and in public places is wrong. A great many people risked speaking honestly to accomplish all of that, and people around the world are still taking those kinds of risks.
Personally, in my youth and as a young adult I spent a lot of time struggling to keep my little social lies together, to keep from getting caught in my brags and bravados. One day, at around 40 years of age, I decided to try something I had never tried before... a deep practice of honesty. It worked, in spite of my doubt that it would, and today I’m wonderfully relieved of that burden I carried.
Very little in my upbringing convinced me that being truthful would really work in the world. Advertising told me that the best way to cope would be to have a finer car, or a nicer suit, or shinier hair ... well, you know the routine because we still see it today. Some preachers told me to be honest, but then were found to be liars themselves. But in spite of that, I tried a deeper honesty and found that it brought greater rewards than I ever expected.
A message for me to try honesty came though from somewhere, and it is coming through for the world as whole. It is working for my neighborhood and it is working for my city.
John Statler is the owner of Computer Services Northwest, is a former member of the Medford City Council, and sits on several non-profit boards and commissions in Jackson County.
