Honesty

This week we were asked if you to tell honesty is based on a sliding scale or is it a solid notion not based on situational influences.

Honesty can be based on a sliding scale depending on whether brutal honesty will upset someone. How many times have any of us lied to not hurt a loved one’s feelings.

My son is one of the most honest person I know, but that could be to do with him being autistic. I remember being in line at a shop when my son, who was about seven at the time, said I looked like a witch with my messy hair. Others in the queue looked to me and wanted me to tell him off, but he was just seeing things as he thought they were.

My hair was a mess, and I probably looked like a witch to him.

Since Covid my son has been much more aware of his feelings. He is still more honest than most, but he talks about what scares him. Every so often he will come over to me, or his dad, and hug us. He never used to do that.

Being honest, we are all running scared, but to someone on the autistic spectrum it is so much worse. They deal in facts and figures, and they are scared by what they hear on the news, or read on social media.

Being honest is important. If you make a mistake it is better to own up to it, than believe it was someone else’s fault. It is from our mistakes we learn, but we can never learn, if we don’t admit what we have done wrong.