how to walk differently in truth

I love honesty, and I love honest people.  I have always prided myself on being a truthful person, but it honestly isn't all it's cracked up to be.  It’s gotten me whippings, and it has hurt feelings and lost me friends.   My honesty, like everything else in my personality, has had to come under evaluation as I get older.  I had to understand that even the truth doesn't have to be told.  Sometimes it was just my ego just wanting to run free.  I had to learn that tact is most often is in order, and even honesty can be improved.  Most of all, I had to learn just because it’s MY truth, doesn’t mean it is A truth.  I have prepared some scenarios below to illustrate how I walk differently in my truth.

1.   My girl is in an outfit she loves, and she asks me what I think, but I don’t care for it.                

Old truth:  Girl, was you going for the pilgrim look?     GROWN TRUTH: If it makes you glow, I can’t say no.                                                                                 I know everyone and their cockeyed uncle can say they love what I have on, but if I don’t care for it, I hate it.  If my girl has found an outfit in which she feels beautiful and confident, who am I to shake her confidence for the sake of my personal preference?

2.  Job interviewer says: teachers in our programs work 70-75 hours.                                           Old truth: Ma’am, you can write this in the constitution and the commandments, I ain’t working no damn 70 hours a week, battling my blood pressure and thinning my edges, in order to try to teach somebody else wild ass chirren and pad charter school CEO Fatpockets fat pockets. You gotta be out of your fucking mind!                                                                              

GROWN TRUTH:  Our expectations differ greatly; perhaps, we can take this moment to find opportunities more suitable to our needs.

I used to think I had to do a lot to express that somebody had me fucked up, but I don’t anymore unless the person is really asking for it.

3.  Random lady at work with an abusive husband confides in me that he has started to hit her children.       Old truth: Girl, you a grown woman, and you got a right to get your ass beat, but you ain’t got no right to bring your children in it. Get out now and get you some help before Jabbo kill all of yall.                                       GROWN TRUTH: I am sorry you have to experience this. Here is a list of resources that can help you leave when you feel the time is right..

Matters of the heart are dangerous territory and something you can’t understand secondhand. I’m not bout to make nobody situation worse because of insensitivity.

4. Sister brings by her boyfriend, Geraldo, that I hate.                                                                     Old truth: Sister, Geraldo dick must fall to his ankles because he ain’t got a pot to piss in nor a window to throw it out of. Matter of fact, I think he is a piece of oily moose shit. I guess you determined to get your head bumped by these trifling negroes. GROWN TRUTH: In my opinion, you can do better, but it’s in Geraldo’s best interest that our paths do not cross.

5.  Mama wakes me up Sunday morning talking bout you can at least watch Joel Osteen if you ain’t gone go to church so you won’t burn in hell.                                                                             Old truth:  Ma, Joel Osteen, Bishop Long, and Joyce and Creflo Dollar them is nothing but some dangalinging crooks.  Ain’t no spirituality in them churches, just money grubbing and false propheting.     GROWN TRUTH: Ma, although I do understand and respect your concern for my soul, I don’t find peace in traditional religion any more.  Please trust the values you instilled in me and respect my need to discover and worship “God” in the ways in which I find comfort and peace.

6.  Shitty ex wants me to like the Facebook page for his new restaurant.                                         Old truth: I don’t give a good goddamn bout your motherfucking restaurant.  I don’t care if this shit burns to the ground.   If I had a match and I were there, I’d burn it down myself, and if you anywhere nearby, Imma light you up like a marshmallow, too. GROWN TRUTH:  I don’t give a good goddamn bout your motherfucking restaurant.  I don’t care if this shit burns to the ground.   If I had a match and I were there, I’d burn it down myself, and if you anywhere nearby, Imma light you up like a marshmallow, too.

I’m still a work in progress.