Folded thought of the day:

I want to create an entire line of t-shirts, each with clever 
and pithy sayings on them which illuminate something profound 
about human interaction and our place in the universe.  So far 
I've come up with one.  I know it's not a lot, but it's a start.

The t-shirt I'm referring to would have the following question 
on the front -- "Are you telling me what I want to hear?"

Now, if you saw this question, would you take it as a challenge 
not to tell me what I want to hear or as an invitation to tell 
me what I want to hear?  And here, my friends, is where the 
bread gets buttered.

Based on my years of experience dealing with various sorts of 
people, I've found that many times, when involved in serious 
discussion, a person with say something like "I want you to 
be honest with me and don't just tell me what I want to hear." 

And once this is made clear, they then wait for the person 
to tell them exactly what they want to hear.  

So, if this is the case, does it mean that we secretly want 
people to lie to us to reinforce the false image we have of 
the world and/or ourselves or that we are so certain of the 
truth that we do not want to deal with conflicting and 
obviously incorrect data?  Or is there another reason?  
Or should I re-think my t-shirt line?

And now a few reader responses to the recent "truth" 
posting Below the Fold.

"A great soul once said that if we lie, we eventually lose the 
privilege of knowing the truth."
-- T. Montandon 

"Sometimes, we have to resign ourselves to the fact that we 
may never know the truth, But, if we are true to ourselves 
and others, we can rest easy that we held to our virtues."
-- J. Sabean

"Truth must be recognized as unchanging and absolute or else 
we will lose the ability to see it's power to transform us 
into who we are meant to be. Today's philosophy seems to be 
exactly the opposite of this and we are all just supposed to 
adopt the truth that best suits the majority for the moment."
-- COREVOICE

"Accepting truth requires taking responsibility.  Can you see 
a starving child while having plenty of food on your own 
table, and deny the truth that you CAN do something about it?  
So then comes the responsibility to make a decision to either 
help, or ignore, the child.  Whatever the decision, and no 
matter what the reason behind the decision, a decision still 
had to be made."
-- C. Murray