It matters. At least, I believe it matters. What we say matters, and what we do matters. Even if it won’t immediately affect the way people live on the other side of the planet, it matters. The tiniest litter matters, as does a punch in the jaw or the biggest lie ever. They all matter. A lie is a lie, and by any other name it still matters. We have a name for a person who promulgates or publishes a lie. He or she is called a liar. I have a friend who is a liar. He publishes his lies on Facebook, and he rationalizes it by saying he is just letting us know what others are saying. But it matters. He is diminishing us by his lies when he could be seeking truth. I have another friend who spreads lies by email. He receives lies and he willingly passes them on. He, too, is a liar. He, too, diminishes us by his lies when he could be seeking the truth. The internet has made it easy for us to lie. If we wish to, we can do so anonymously. But when we lie, we make the world a lesser place. We make it easier for others to lie. We create an unhealthy atmosphere where the lie seems to be the norm, where lies are accepted or taken for granted, where we cannot easily know who or what is to be believed. We destroy trust, and in that we lose. We all lose. There is no “white lie.” We joke about the answer when someone close to us asks a question such as “Do these pants make me look fat?” The accepted answer is “no”, but is the reason that the person is fat to begin with and therefore it is not the pants that make him/her look fat? Or is it just a lie because we are somehow afraid of the truth? If the answer should be “yes,” then maybe we need to come up with an honest answer. The fair alternative is to avoid answering the question entirely, and at least in doing so we do not destroy truth – we do not destroy trust. Under any circumstances, a lie is a lie, and it matters. The tiniest litter? It really does matter. It may make our world less beautiful, or it may poison our waters. More importantly, just as a lie begets more lies, litter begets more litter, and violence begets more violence. The ripples spread, and ultimately those ripples may even reach the other side of the planet. It is, after all, a small world, and what we say or do really does matter. What you say -- what you do -- matters. Do the things you know you should do. Be the person you know you should be. You matter. You make a difference.
Posted on: Tue, 09 Sep 2014 17:40:38 +0000