Are you tuned in to reality? Am I tuned in to reality? No, it isnt a radio station or a television channel. My thesaurus gives many definitions of reality but the definition that pops out at me is truth. If mental health demands reality, then lies must mean an emotional upheaval at some level. You are probably asking yourself how important truth is but something happened to me today that I am now asking myself is there anything more important than truth? When you think about it, what else is there but truth?

Today I experienced a friendship that was broke because of lies. I think as friends, we can accept shortcomings, annoyances and many other things but if truth is not there or never has been there, then we dont really know that person. Truth finally emerged today like a bright light. Once that light was seen, all kinds of lies that begat lies were seen. So the downside of finding out someone has lied to you is that you dont even know who they are. Maybe they dont even know who they are. They are like a spider caught in its own web, the web of deceit. Maybe they refuse to see the lies that they tell themselves, so it inhibits them from knowing who the real, authentic me is. You feel like saying, Will the real you please stand?

I dont mean this to sound self -righteous. I can think of a few times when I lied. It certainly did backfire on me. It caused not only hurt to others but also to me. So please dont think I am preaching to you. I am talking to myself, as well.

Was the war in Iraq based on truth? Was Hitler truth? Being in debt is also an untruth because when we are in debt we are spending money that we do not have. Our country is plagued with credit card debt, as never before in history. Debt is an untruth. Debt is not facing reality. It is living beyond our means. It is living in a way that we are not being real with ourselves as well as not being real with society.

Truth counts in our emotions. If we do not allow ourselves to grieve or be angry, it will catch up with us in a variety of ways. If we are sad and we allow ourselves to be sad, we are healthy. If we deny any emotion, we cant help our self because we dont know why we are acting the way we do. A child doesnt try to hide emotions. If he gets angry, you know it. He cries or lashes out at you but then, when it is over, it is over, emotionally.

Now, I just want to bring up a something else about truth. It is my opinion that in some areas, truth is not an exact science. Read on.

I went to a seminar once and the question on the table was, What is truth? After much discussion, the instructor revealed that truth is what you perceive it to be. I guess that is why people get into arguments at baseball games or they debate religion or politics. Their truth is truth. It is what they comprehend or grasp to be true. I may hear someone say something that sounds sarcastic; you may hear him say the same thing, but you dont note the sarcasm. Which one of us is right? I guess that means we both are right because we both see it in our mind a certain way. At that point, we just have to agree to disagree.

I am not writing this article to lecture anyone. It is merely to explore truth in our lives.

I am so much happier if I am true to myself, as most of you have certainly found out, also. In fact, from now on, I think I will try even harder to be more truthful with others and myself. Did you ever commit yourself to a project or a trip that you really did not want to do? I have. I was then angry with myself for not being truthful.

In summary, we could say that truth or lack of truth affect our emotions, financial status, relationships, state of our country and all of life itself.

Children are truthful most of the time until they learn otherwise. They wont hesitate to tell you if you have freckles or wrinkles. As my granddaughter expressed to me with pure honesty and love when she said, Grandmother, you are the best wrinkled-eyed grandmother I ever did see. Somehow it didnt make me feel old or ugly. It made me feel warm inside because this child could be so very truthful and together we faced reality.

Websters New World Thesaurus, New Revised Edition, Prentice Hall