I CAN handle the truth

“I’ll answer the question…You want answers?”

“I think I’m entitled to them.”

“You want answers?!?”

“I want the TRUTH!!”

“You can’t HANDLE the truth!!!”

If you’re not familiar with this verbal exchange, this is a scene from the movie A Few Good Men, in which Tom Cruise’s character is questioning Jack Nicholson’s character in court.

Truth with others

Have you ever had an exchange like this with a friend, colleague, or family member? Maybe you didn’t say it out loud, but have you ever thought it?

For a long time, I have believed that people don’t want to hear the truth. More specifically, they don’t want to hear MY truth. If I tell my friend that I don’t want to go an event because, frankly, that event always bores me, I think they will feel angry with me. Instead, I would just grit my teeth and go. Enough of these moments happen and eventually my friend says that they don’t trust me, and I legitimately have no idea why.

I’m coming to believe that it’s because they knew that the event always bored me and I pretended (lied) as if it didn’t.

Truth with yourself

How many of us have had Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson bantering within ourselves? Where we really want answers, we want to know the truth, and then a part of us doesn’t believe we have the capacity to receive the truth?

I started iFeelio so that I could be more honest with myself. I didn’t fully know why I was doing it, I just knew I was tired of denying myself a more aligned existence. It has been a brutal path and will continue to be. The truth does hurt. Sticks and stones will break my bones, and words can frequently hurt me. Especially my own words.

And, YET, iFeelio has helped me delve quickly into the truth of how I feel and admit it to myself. The more willing I am to be honest with myself, the more that I believe I am on my own team. If someone lies to me, I don’t think they’re on my team, and I can’t trust them to look out for me. In the same way, when I lie to myself, I don’t think I’m on my own team, and I don’t trust myself to look out for my own well-being.

In conclusion, I CAN handle the truth.

Now, Dostoyevsky:

“Above all, don’t lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.” — Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov