How does one adapt to a lifestyle that requires deception and lies and still remain an honest person? How does one honor one person with the truth without offending another whose peace of mind depends on telling the lie? One will cry “Disloyalty!” and lose trust depending on the decision, while the other feels secure, for the moment, knowing that you’ve aligned with them. If neither side is consistently chosen, both will lose faith and trust. If either side is consistently chosen, then the other will surely feel betrayed. Now add another person…and another…and another, until you have a network of people navigating everyone else’ deceptions, lies, and avoiding their lies being exposed. It’s inevitable that fear of betrayal and distrust will weigh on every mind, with everyone looking out for a knife in the back and half-believing the slightest rumor that one is coming. How can love for one another endure in such a scenario? How can trust ever survive?

Honesty and openness is not just a practice based on a lofty idea. It’s not merely an option that people have the luxury of not choosing if they genuinely care about the quality of their interaction with another person. It’s a practical and critical necessity that must be present in any interaction between people if there is to be any hope of a genuine, trusting, dependable, and mutually beneficial relationship enduring the test of time.

– Michael Verdun


3 thoughts on “Integrity’s Dilemma…

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