In many ways, there is none more ernest, committed or vocally supporting a person then one who had been converted.
I do not mean simply (or irrelevantly) a person who has found a religious (or political, but I repeat myself) ideal they have committed too, but rather in broad strokes, all things.
The human notion of truth, is powerful, yet our understanding of it, our perception of it, is terrifyingly flawed, and broadly self centered in bias.
Information, good or Ill, is not always factual, and facts are not always truth, yet truth itself, is the basis for all of the previously mentioned items. Yet without the attachment of meaning, or of value, truth for the sake of truth, is null in its effect on ones life.
Yet subjective as it all seems, truth is still the cornerstone of all growth and progress, be it the singular individual or the width and depth of humanity as a whole. A is A. Something, is what it is, even if it doesn't exactly look like it upon first glance. Light is light, warm is warm, and the opposite of both indicates the absence of either, a rock is a rock, unless it's a turtle in hiding.
To say that people are complex is both true, and imperfect, because motives are simple, but reasons are not, people are much more than just the sum total of their own experiences, biases, culture or beliefs. In fact it is even deeper than that.
Why then, practically speaking, do we choose to further complicate things by choosing to lie? The motivational reasoning for such can vary person to person, yet the effect is almost always the same: chaos.
Be it to protect, or to cheat, depriving others of truth always ends in damage, exponential cost to self and others, and negatively impacts all that are in proximity to the lie, and/or the one lying.
Yet why for the love of sanity, do we default to it? Children teach themselves to lie young, and what is worse, is they are often too hard headed to stop, even when caught and punished for it.
I was terrible about this until I was around 16 or so, and even then I didn't fully break myself of the habit until I was almost 25. And as such, I dare say you may count myself as among the "converted" in matters of honesty. To quote my mother: "I don't hate people, but I abhor a liar."
Yet, even so, honesty itself also comes with a burden, doubled when one is in concert with questionable people or proven liars. To Quote Jack Sparrow: "Me? I'm dishonest, and a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest. Honestly. It's the honest ones you want to watch out for, because you can never predict when they're going to do something incredibly... stupid."
This implying that honest people who are always taken as honest, who suddenly chose to lie, are the most dangerous because they are both not good at it, and no one ever expects them to actually lie to start with.
Juxtaposing that with someone like myself, a convert to the truth, and I would submit that such people are the only ones to actually trust, because we know both the danger and the value of the truth, and of lies, and we choose one over the other, because we understand the consequences of going the other way, and if one is truly ethical, and holds no malice, then they will choose the truth every time. To summarize what King Solomon said in his book of Proverbs: Necessary are the wounds of a friend, but kisses from an adversary drip with death.
As Jordan Peterson has said in his book, 12 rules for life, "always tell the truth, or at least don't lie". This echoes the axiom of Mark Twain who said, always tell the truth, so you don't have to remember anything.
In so far as this all relates to myself and who I am now, and who I want to be, I now say this: I endeavor to always be honest with myself, and with others, to spare the compounding effect of lies upon consequences, and to foster a sense of reliability for myself.
Doing so also means I can avoid posible entanglements by warding off others who might not be as forthright or truthful, thus protecting myself from harm further down the line.
This also has the effect of drawing others of like or compatible ideals to me, and as such should hopefully bolster my efforts of self improvement by allowing others to surround me who have like goals and standards, who can help me, and whom I can help in kind.
It is, I humbly submit, the only moral way forward for anyone looking to be the best person they can or might be, and that failing in doing so is not wrong, but part of the process of learning, yet willingly choosing not to do so, will only end in misery and chaos.
I choose the balance of order, and freedom, honesty and growth. I choose not to cause undue harm to others with intent, yet make no excuse for insult for they who would act against me for selfish gain.
It is why, when I am being honest with myself, I can say that I wish to learn, to grow, and to achieve that which I have set before myself as a lofty goal: the reputation of a good and honest man, a faithful friend, and a terrible adversary, an advocate for they who need it, and one who stands at a line not to be crossed.
I have made great progress to this end, yet I know I still have a long way to go, a lot of work to do, and frankly, it is an end I know I will never fully arrive at, yet the journey is as always, the worthier part, and what I do not know, I will learn, one way or another.
It is who I intend to be, it is, my future self whom I hope to meet in my mirror one day, and whom I wish to present to the world at large, or at least my little corner of it..
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