“Keep no secrets of thyself from thyself.” –Greek Proverb
It’s important to be honest with everyone, but it is especially crucial that we be honest with ourselves. It is only natural to focus on our virtues and try to ignore our faults. But we dare not deny our faults, and we can’t ignore them all the time. We have to devote some time and effort to recognizing our faults, and working to improve ourselves. Nobody is exempt from this requirement, because we all have our share of faults.
Some people, however, refuse to acknowledge any of their faults. They feel that they are never to blame for anything that happens. Instead of accepting responsibility for their faults and trying to learn from them, they deny that they have done anything wrong. They always manage to find a scapegoat on whom to put the blame. Since they tell themselves that they are not capable of doing anything wrong, they must find someone else upon whom to lay the responsibility for their own actions.
If we lie to ourselves too often we will eventually begin to believe our own lies. When this happens we have not only lost our capacity for any further personal growth, but we tend to hurt other people needlessly. Since we have convinced ourselves that we can never be at fault, it is easy to place blame on others to avoid blaming ourselves. We lose our capacity to feel for other people. We see everything in terms of how it affects us and are unable to feel empathy for others. We become so wrapped up in ourselves that almost nothing else seems to matter. We seek happiness from the conviction that we are blameless. But we never find it.
We must care about others if we are to stand any chance of finding happiness in this life. We must learn to mentally put ourselves in the shoes of others who are suffering and try to feel what they are feeling in order to help them. The more involved we become in the lives of others, the less obsessed we are with ourselves. We must try not only to see others objectively, but we must also learn to view ourselves objectively as much as possible. There is nothing wrong with having faults and being to blame for things so long as we recognize our shortcomings and try to make improvements. None of us ever come even close to being perfect. Making mistakes is a natural part of being human. But when we try to convince ourselves that we are blameless by lying to ourselves about our own faults, we lose the potential for selfimprovement.
Think about it.
***
Copyright 2023
Allen W. Smith
