How to get rid of Guilt!
Easy Lies
Small lies... Harmless little feathery lies, silly silky fluttering flattering moth-soft lies that brush against the listeners' faces and make them smile. Lies innocent as butterflies - as short-lived and light-as-air. Touchstone's definition does not include these.
I started small with Johnny, Johnny, Yes, Papa lies. Three older sisters ready to catch me out. I'd sneak out their comics and story-books from under their pillows while they slept. Instincts of self-preservation made me lie with a straight face. 'I haven't touched your stupid book', 'How am I to know where you've kept it!'
At school a sunny smile helped- 'I wasn't talking', 'I've left my homework at home'.
Lies were there, lying all about me, to shield me from punishment.
Lies - yes... but what a lot of truth those lies revealed about me, my childhood. My naive defences were no defences at all - mum seemed to know everything but she never scolded or smacked me. I felt low with feelings of guilt if I lied to mum, but had no compunction whatever about fibbing to my sisters! They would rave and rant a bit, but that was all.
Not that I didn't wish to be good and honest like Uncle Arthur's Gladys Great-heart, but I realised quite early that there is a wide chasm between the ideal and the real, and unknowingly I put the teachings of a Zen master into practice - in a moment of crisis for me I was the most important person and the most important task was to save my bacon and the most important time was 'now'.
In my teens and twenties I dabbled with the truth, and emerged battle-worn and weary.
Discretion is now my watchword. People ask for an opinion, but don't want to hear the truth...they just want a back-up!
Lies are the sponge-soft mattresses, the cosy quilts on wintry mornings. I think, and this is my honest opinion, lies are just as important and essential to living as the truth.Guileless lies are guiltless lies. If I can make someone happier or more confident with a small harmless little lie, well why not? No Hiroshima will be destroyed by it.
So get rid of your guilt and go ahead and spread some buttery sunshine around.
Easy Lies
Small lies... Harmless little feathery lies, silly silky fluttering flattering moth-soft lies that brush against the listeners' faces and make them smile. Lies innocent as butterflies - as short-lived and light-as-air. Touchstone's definition does not include these.
I started small with Johnny, Johnny, Yes, Papa lies. Three older sisters ready to catch me out. I'd sneak out their comics and story-books from under their pillows while they slept. Instincts of self-preservation made me lie with a straight face. 'I haven't touched your stupid book', 'How am I to know where you've kept it!'
At school a sunny smile helped- 'I wasn't talking', 'I've left my homework at home'.
Lies were there, lying all about me, to shield me from punishment.
Lies - yes... but what a lot of truth those lies revealed about me, my childhood. My naive defences were no defences at all - mum seemed to know everything but she never scolded or smacked me. I felt low with feelings of guilt if I lied to mum, but had no compunction whatever about fibbing to my sisters! They would rave and rant a bit, but that was all.
Not that I didn't wish to be good and honest like Uncle Arthur's Gladys Great-heart, but I realised quite early that there is a wide chasm between the ideal and the real, and unknowingly I put the teachings of a Zen master into practice - in a moment of crisis for me I was the most important person and the most important task was to save my bacon and the most important time was 'now'.
In my teens and twenties I dabbled with the truth, and emerged battle-worn and weary.
Discretion is now my watchword. People ask for an opinion, but don't want to hear the truth...they just want a back-up!
Lies are the sponge-soft mattresses, the cosy quilts on wintry mornings. I think, and this is my honest opinion, lies are just as important and essential to living as the truth.Guileless lies are guiltless lies. If I can make someone happier or more confident with a small harmless little lie, well why not? No Hiroshima will be destroyed by it.
So get rid of your guilt and go ahead and spread some buttery sunshine around.
so true
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