Honesty

Anyone who knows me knows that I have certain expectations. Not high standards, by any means, just a set of expectations. Most of them go along the lines of "treat others the way you would choose to be treated" golden rule. I say "most" because I am realistic and have lowered my expectations because of my past unfortunate experiences.

Yes, it really is that simple.

I'm not expecting perfect actions all the time. Not even on a regular basis. I expect you to mess up. And when you do mess up, just be honest about it. Too simple to explain to some people, I guess.

Lately, I've had people (friends, acquaintances, even strangers) approach me to ask me a personal question of some kind. All of these approaches have gone something like this:

Them: Hey, can I ask you a question?

Me: Sure?

Then: Are you going to be honest?

Me: *blank stare*

I've adopted a canned response to this particular type of inquiry: Yes, I will be honest. I don't live my life in a way that requires me to lie or hide things from people. If it's too personal of a question, I'll tell you I'm not comfortable answering, but otherwise my answer will be the 100% truth.

Take this as you will. Comment as you wish.
After all, it's just punctuated graffiti.
~A