A Little White to Hide

Naked truth always better than dressed lie. Classic proverb, isn’t it? For some people, any kind of lie is undoubtedly unforgiven. But sometimes we met some kind of special case. Sometimes we make an exception, and it called white lie. It is when you tell lie to make others feel better, or when you try to fix someone’s spirit, or when you prevent some kind of breakdown. But lie is still a lie. There’s a lot of reason why I can’t accept a white lie.

The first is white lie is a lie, what you tell is not the truth. So, when you want to make other feel better, maybe you would make them feel better, temporarily. For example, your friend asking you about his/her clothes for their job interview. You think their polo shirt is too casual for an interview. But you see your friend is being too nervous and you don’t want they think about details like clothes, so you tell a white lie to them, and said “Just wear what you feel comfort to wear!”. And then they go to their job interview, what would they hear? They would be get a harsh comment about their polo shirt. You know it would happen, but you don’t tell your friend.

The second is you can’t forever keep the lie, some time it would be discovered. For example, one of your friend is freshly broke up with her boyfriend, the boy said that he is kind of bored with the relationship. But you know the truth, he is cheated your friend. To prevent her from breakdown, you keep the truth for yourself (this is one of white lie). Hear the mouth-to-mouth-gossip your friend discover the truth, and also she knows that you know the truth from the first place, she would feel being cheated twice, from his boy and from you. She is still get hurts, worse.

The third is a lie would lead you to another lie. This is one of my experience with a white lie. My grandmother is fourth child from 5 siblings. Years ago, she still had her second sister in Australia. But, 4 years ago, her sister died. My big family decided to keep the truth away from her, so whenever she ask about her sister we would change the topic. At first everything was fine. But, my Grandma is getting worry and worry when her sister never called her. Then we said, maybe my Grandma’s sister is become more deaf. Then to make her feel better, we promised her to go to Australia, when she ask the promise, we would say another lie and another lie until we become confuse of our own lies. Until one day, I don’t know how, one of my cousin, slipped the truth. And my grandmother was sick than ever. She can’t wake from her bed, and thought that she was deceived by all the whole family. Fortunately, several months later, she could accept it. You need more than a little white to hide the black.

So I just totally agree with the proverb, sounds cliché, sounds classic, that naked truth is always better than dressed lie. (Adiajeng Warastuti. 16207003)