Hard Truth or Sugar Coated Lie

Once upon a time there's a kid, let's call him Joe. Joe was ordered by his mother to keep eye on a family cat. One day, the cat was playing in the backyard and it jump over the fence and a truck hits it hard until it's death. Then the mother coming back from his trip and trying to find the cat all around the house but she can't find it. Then he ask Joe about this, "Joe, where's the Cat?"

"It's dead because it was hit by a truck" Joe said.

The mother was crying because the Cat was lived with her since a long time. The father then approach Joe and said, "Joe, next time you have a bad new, don't tell it directly like that. You make your mother cry. Tell the story first, for example, tell your mother that the Cat was playing in the roof, having fun and then suddenly there's a strong wind and the cat was slipped and fall over the fences then a truck hits it..."

"Oh, okay Father" Joe said.

Few weeks later, the Mother and the Father has to make a trip outside of town. The Grandmother was asked to take care of Joe at home. A few days later, the Mother call Joe just to check on his condition.

"Joe, how are you?" said the Mother.
"I'm fine Mother..." Joe said.
"How about your Grandma?" said the Mother.
Joe suddenly remember what his Father said before, "Umm... Mother, about that.... Grandma was playing in the roof, having fun...."

Wow, it is a very long introduction, no wonder my Lecturer write that as one of the reason he gave me a B minus for my Essay... T.T
But I do still think that introduction hold a very important part to entice the reader to read further of my writings.

So, anyone get the meaning of the story??
Well, it should've been a funny story, just a joke...

In life there's always something that called TRUTH and I don't know why it always associated with HURT, PAIN, BITTER, DISCOMFORT and some other negative words. Then again, when I think about it, Sometimes truth does give you an uneasiness feeling. So some people tend to coating it with some sugar to make it sweeter.

What good does it do? 
Does it really make it sweeter?
It's still the truth and still hurts in the end. So why don't we just cut the crap and get to the main point, THE TRUTH itself. And then they call it the HARD TRUTH. 

The problem with covering the truth with sweet and nice things are that the sweet cover is sometimes (or more often, and maybe always) a lie. Yeah, you may call it white lies or anything but it still lies. See, some people even make a sweet cover for LIE.

TRUTH leads you to TRUST, LIE will lead you to DISTRUST and sometimes betrayal. It's fully in your hand, whether you want to live the rest of your life on the base of TRUTH or LIE. Wise people once said about the down effect of lies is that, "When you once said lies and don't come clean about it you will tend to cover that lie with another lies and suddenly you'll realize that all your life was all a lie..."

Wow, that's heavy...!

But then another issue about TRUTH is that, sometimes some people are not ready to hear it. So some people might actually prefer the sweet cover version rather than the hard TRUTH itself.

Let say it like this, you have a friend with a stink body odor. How are you going to break the TRUTH to him?
or You see someone you don't know walk out of a toilet and forget to zip-up his zipper. Will you tell him about that?
or perhaps, When you speak with your friend and you realize that he has a bad breath. Are you going to tell him about it?

TRUTH sometimes will make you discomfort and feel uneasy. But so many times, we prefer to stay silent and let the bad odor, bad breath or unzipped pants just passing by in the name of friendship and take them as who they are.

For me personally, that's not your true friends. I want someone who can tell the truth of how I am, rather than cover it with sweet things. Do you know that sometimes people just simply don't realize their flaw because he himself doesn't realize it and he actually need other people to say that for him and tell him about that so he knows and do something about that.

Let say, if you sense that my body odor is stink and you do nothing about it because you don't want to hurt my heart. Then I walk on by without realizing it, and then I met other people too without realizing my body odor. People will feel discomfort to be around me and I would be embarrassed further. 

Can you see the back of your back?
Yes, with mirror.
That's what a True Friend should do, be a very good mirror to his/her friends. 

"TRUTH is like a pill..." they said. So as long as those pills were directed to the right illness, no matter how bitter it is, people will still take it because they know that they need it no matter what. So does the TRUTH, if we can deliver the TRUTH that will be able to build our friends into a better person, then they also might realize that they actually would prefer the TRUTH rather than sugar coated one.

The best way to convey the truth is not by sugar coating it, but by telling it softly and carefully with full attention toward the person we're telling the truth to. Convey it with full consideration and sincerely, so our truth might not seem as a mock, but instead a real critics to make our friends become a better person than he is today.

You are special, just not that special....!!!
That's a fact and that's the truth. Live with it and always strive to be better. 


Image Source:
http://cutestcatpics.com/wp-content/uploads/main/2013_07/Cat-Flying-Off-Roof.jpg