The Honesty Rock

• Please be honest and tell us the truth.
• Be open and share your ideas.
• Feel at ease and be yourself.
• Being you is beautiful no matter who you are or what you believe and represent.

We will include your thoughts and ideas,  we will include your perspective, we will consider you and you will be respected and loved.

Exposing your “authentic self” with confidence and being your “authentic self” is actually dangerous.   The social machine makes broken promises on acceptance.  Acceptance is up to individuals.

We should accept others and we should accept opinions, positions and perspective.

If honesty is a rock,  we use it to beat people.    

This isn’t new,  William Blake addressed it

A truth that’s told with bad intent… A truth that’s told with bad intent beats all the lies you can invent. William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827)

If honesty is a rock, we throw it through the windows of glass houses.   

If honesty is a rock, we paint it to hide what it really is so that it fits our ideals vs the reality.

Have I gone mad?

We are living as a society in some form of natural hypocrisy.  As I consider what I see in the world and what I experience.   It is frustrating to me because I thought that my generation would do something different.   Generation X,  we were supposed to be different.  Somehow along the way,  it didn’t work out that way.   I am literally confused by what we are doing in the world today.   I am confused by our divisiveness and I am confused by why there is so much hate.  I would think the “war on terror” would be a “war on cancer” or a “war on poverty” or a “war on climate change” but while fires are burning down half our country, the other half takes selfies in front of their 200″ TV wall popping opioids.   I guess the challenge is to find a way to remain sane!

The questions that we have to answer as parents and leaders are so very complicated.  Recently,  I was on the phone with a friend who came to America when he was a child.  He became an American citizen as a child and is one of the most patriotic people I know.  In our discussion,  he spoke about how he is afraid for himself and his family.   The depth of his fear is well founded in everyday experience.   As I listened to him, I had no answers.   I couldn’t think of one thing to say except “I’m sorry.”   I have no answers to many of the questions raised by friends, relatives and my children.   It is an open ended and constant series of conversations.

Talking to the boys

The complicated truth must be simplified.  It is our responsibility as parents, friends and family to be honest.  It is also our responsibility to be thoughtful in the way we convey our honesty and our approach.

We can choose to beat others with the rock,  we can choose to paint it,  we can choose to hide it,  we can choose to build with it.   The clear common denominator is “we choose.”

This is the message I share with my children and this is the message I share with my friends and family.   It is our choice on how we engage personally and professionally.  It is our choice on how and when we show ourselves and allow ourselves to be seen.   It is our choice to do what is morally right.  It is our choice to agree on morals and values and make the best of those choices.

These are difficult and challenging times in human history.   This is also a common story.  Humanity is defined by challenges.   We have to make the best of where we are in this world and take a step a time to make things better.   Every transaction counts and every opportunity should be taken advantage of to make things better.

What are you going to do with your rock?