Today I managed to spend six hours at work, though I did get to see most of the 4th quarter of an enjoyable AFC championship game and the second half or so of the NFC Championship after running some errands and my roommates got home. I found an Indian restaurant whose food tasted good but did not settle well in the stomach, so there is no way that restaurant is going to make it on any rotation of mine. During most of my time at work, I was able to read [1] or chat or ponder [2] in peace. This time was necessary because I had a lot of thinking to do and needed all of the time for reflection that I could give. I also needed the overtime to pay for the tires that I had to put on my car yesterday [3], as long as it’s paid at time and a half, which cannot always be guaranteed.

Although the day was mostly peaceful, today presented itself an interesting problem in the case of one fellow who seemed to be lonely. I got a call in the mid-morning, and the fellow was not an easy person to talk to. He seemed to have unrealistic demands on others without holding himself to the same standard of precision, was a quibbler with an endless appetite for argument. In dealing with this sort of rudeness I wondered if the problem was with me or him. Then the person called back about half a dozen times and managed to be equally rude and insulting with all of them, so I figured that it wasn’t me, but it was rather him, since all of us felt the same sort of frustration in talking with someone who chose to take everything in a tiresome and literal manner without being equally literal himself.

There is often a saying that leads people to be suspicious of that which is so good on the surface that the jaded and cynical are suspicious because it looks too good to be true. Likewise, there are areas in life that are too true to be good. We may see a portrayal of life that is so painful that it is often difficult to deal with it simply because it hits too close to home. I was reading an article about a sportswriter who was unable before his death to write a promised book on Alex Rodriguez [4], but who wrote so pointedly about Vice President Biden’s failings that he was considered an ‘enemy reporter’ by the Obama administration [5]. Biden doesn’t seem to have taken it personally, though, even speaking at the reporter’s funeral.

I often wonder if I too am too true to be good in many situations. Surely life would be much easier and less difficult if I were less outspoken, and yet as is often the case with people, I work with difficult and unpleasant compulsions, one of which is being compulsively honest. While there may be plenty of worse compulsions, it can be painful to be honest in some situations, since little good can come out of the truth when there is an absence of trust between people. It remains for us to build bridges so that true communication is a harbinger of goodwill rather than something threatening or hostile or dangerous. We can all dream, and work as best as we can, to make sure that we are neither too good to be true, nor too true to be good. There ought to be room for both goodness and truth in our lives.

[1] https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2014/01/20/book-review-charlemagne/

[2] https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2014/01/19/a-scarcity-of-gentlemen/

[3] https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2014/01/19/pop-goes-the-weasel/

[4] http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x19xov0_cold-open-piers-morgan-live-drake-snl-1-18-14_fun

[5] http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/mlb/news/20140116/ben-cramer/