UPFRONT April 4, 2005 Issue

Why honesty matters

DANIS MUTCHLER. SENIOR GRAPHIC DESIGNER

As our staff sat in the planning meeting for this issue, no one was readily volunteering to write this "Upfront" introduction. And I had the growing feeling that even though I'm on the design staff, it was my turn. I kept seeing long-ago scene of me standing by the phone in my college dorm room, about to learn a lesson.

I had just lied to my parents. Never mind what about. I virtually never lied—especially to them. So there I stood, by the phone, guilty. But rationalizing why the lie had been for the best. They'd never know. Why not spare them the anguish, save them from getting disappointed and upset? And in fact, this lie had saved my hide. ... Oh. There it was. The honest reason why I'd lied was to save me. Hardly a unique motive for deception, but this self-knowledge—well, it felt bad.

Then, a grand thought arrived in my consciousness. It had the immensity and validity that could have its origin in God. It was succinct and powerful and unavoidably right: "The truth matters more than your hide does."

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