the transparent life
Lies and secrets are common themes in literature, and a fact of daily life.
We take it for granted people will bend the truth a little, although some will actually carry it further and live a lie.
And, for that matter, some of Shakespeare’s greatest villains were dissemblers – shape-shifting charlatans whose hypocrisy and duplicity knew no bounds.
So, the foregoing begs the question: why keep secrets, or lie at all?
Ben Franklin once wrote that three could keep a secret, only if two of them were dead.
The fact is secrets don’t stay concealed forever.
Behind the desire to deceive may be the need to try to control or to create a false impression.
Such endeavors are bound to fail, however, and ultimately the truth will out, often with a vengeance and a backlash that punishes the deceiver.
Take for example, Henchard, in Thomas Hardy’s Mayor of Casterbridge. Henchard spends the entire novel trying to conceal his past.
When he eventually confides the truth to his friend, Farfrae, it doesn’t ease his conscience, but instead makes him paranoid.
He fears that one day Farfrae might use the truth against him.
In the end, worry destroys Henchard and he dies a broken man.
Psychologists have long warned about the detrimental effects of masking our true selves.
Some will present a face to the world that is a facade, and of course, the problem with facades is that they constantly need to be shored up.
An inordinate amount of time and energy is spent in trying to project a false image of ourselves.
The simplest approach is to be authentic.
Transparency allows us to become who we really are and frees us from the worry that people might not accept us if we are honest and direct.
The irony is that if we hide behind an image, we can never really be sure if people like us anyway.
Harper Lee in her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, paid her hero, Atticus Finch, the supreme compliment, saying he was the same in public as he was at home.
I can think of no greater praise than to say a person’s public and private persona match.
It’s beneficial for society and less stressful for us to confidently assert our true identity.
Both our sanity and our growth as individuals depend on it.
There may be other reasons...
I am transparently who I am on Steemit, while using the device of pseudonymity, a "nom de plume," to mask my "true name."
Because some of my writing is "edgy," not "politically correct," or not in keeping with prevailing theological doctrines of the day, I prefer to remain anonymous.
Nonetheless, apart from the literal birth-certificate name, when it comes to @creatr on Steemit, "what you see here is what you get."
😄😇😄
thanks, @creatr
Absolutely important to be authentic. I think sometimes fear and pride get in our way, but we should always strive to be true and show the world who we are. Great post. :)
I totally agree. Thank you, Tina
That is a permeating statement. One cannot rightly see the world, when the glasses we hide behind fog our sight.
exactly! thanks, lydon
Like your post
So you are saying , I should let Chris know I am getting another Motorcycle?, Oh, and another Alfa?, well that, I can say is Her's!