A short, easy one for today. On lying, hiding, cheating and other dishonesty.
I hate these things. Once you get those involved, all bets are off, and I don't have any idea of what's what anymore.
I used to be a bit more moderate, that little white lies to spare people's sensibilities was okay, that it was for the greater good. That cheating on a significant other could be forgiven, that it might just be a symptom of another problem that should be fixed and that it's worth saving the relationship. Not anymore.
Dishonesty breaks down communication. After dishonesty, who knows whether a person says is true or not? How can they communicate anything, when everything they say is in question? In a sense, the little white lies are the worst: why be dishonest about something insignificant? It's a bad trend to have going.
Cheating on someone, well, yeah, evil, no kidding. Helping someone cheat on their significant other(s) also turns out to be only one level removed, if at that: you could be the next one being lied to! I did that once, and felt awful about it. No more of that.
Someone cheating on me would get their arse on the street immediately. In order for someone to cheat on me, they'd have to be quite explicitly evil and malicious, and I just can't believe someone who would do that to me would be worthy of my love and care.
Somehow, I don't expect too many comments disagreeing with me (but still, I've had surprises in the past, about this very subject!), this is generally not too controversial. But this is all about me, and to me, this ranks quite highly, so here we are.
A last detail: I haven't always been honest to myself. How the heck do you manage that? How do you think I feel about that? A doozy of a
cognitive dissonance, let me tell you!