Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Honesty is not always the right approach

On many occasions, I hear my friends tell me "bo3bo3 dude, you are way too much a politician". To be honest, I don’t see myself a politician when dealing with others. I mean the term "politician" bears so much corruption in it that it scares me to hear it. So what drived those people to look at me (or you) as a politician?
The claim is that you have to be honest when dealing with others. Honesty is not always the correct way when approaching some matters. I mean do you visualize what would my wife do to me if I said "honey, this pants is at least one size smaller than what would fit you"? I maybe a dead man walking right after such comment.
I believe that we sometimes have to "sweeten" the answer to first prevent a catastrophe (well, not to this extreme, I exaggerated here) and two to maybe put a smile on someone’s face. Is it worth it? To see a smile on a face is it worth "massaging" the truth?
When people tell me that I act like a politician, I sense that they are hinting that I escape telling the truth to satisfy an individual, or certain people. Believe me I’m not scared (except from mrs bo3bo3), but rather careful not to offend or hurt the feelings of those around me. 5 years of marriage taught me that honesty is not always the right approach. I learned to say things like "honey, I’ve never seen a more beautiful woman than you in my entire life" and maybe "it’s ok dude, we all make such mistakes" even though it may have been a severe mistake. Gotta give someone a hope, that I learned.
So, and as of today, I’m struggling to defend my approach and answer the criticism of being a politician. I simple can not be honest all the time, and there are certain incidents, we may have to massage or manipulate our answers for a good cause, and that is to put a smile on someone’s face. If you knew your dad is gonna die in 2 days as the doctors said, wold you concentrate on how to make him happy these two days, or slam him with the bitter truth of his death?

1 comment:

Diana said...

I've always thought of u as being very diplomatic in dealing with people.

You have a point here, but not all ppl are lucky enough to have the patience u have Amjad :D. Good for you :)