Honesty, Honestly!

I have been thinking a lot about honesty lately. In my previous blog I asked the question "would I tell the cable company if I were getting channels that I was not paying for?" . There was a time when I would have said "hell no" but over the years I have come to the conclusion that I now would. I don't think anyone is completely honest all the time, certainly I am not but at least now I strive toward complete honesty. Although I have been somewhat scrupulous about reporting all my income on my tax returns there have been times when I paid more for something than was indicated on the Bill of Sale. I no longer would do that. It is an ethical situation that not only is a lie on my part but it also contributes to someone else's dishonesty. I am somewhat amazed that some people who consider themselves to be very honest have no ethical dilemma about being paid in cash and then not reporting that income to the IRS. I have a friend who is a "War Tax Resister" who I consider very honest and highly ethical, but he never files a tax return and makes no secret of that fact. I believe this is different from filing a tax information than has incomplete or inaccurate information on it. Of the things that have made me re-evaluate my concern about my own honesty is my involvment in Quaker Church. I have read that it was Quaker merchants who brought about fixed pricing as they felt that if they were asking more for something that they were willing to accept that it was a form of honesty. I don't know if this is true, but it does make some sort of sense to me.

Interpretations

'I'm just a fool whose intentions are good, Oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood". Several conversations recently were reminders of how different people remember the same event differently. I talked with a friend about a hiking trip we were on a few years ago and the way he remembered it, I had to leave early because I was not feeling well. I did leave early but it was because my then girl friend, now my wife, had a wreck and almost totalled her car. Another instance of a conversation I had with my daughter, she seemed to remember that I had told her that I was getting more cable channels that I was paying for and I may have said that but it turns out not to be true. It seems the cable company doesn't want people to subscribe to basic cable so they don't list all of the channels that come with basic cable in their literature. Of course this brought up the question of honesty. If I were getting more channels that I was paying for, would I tell the cable company? Honesty also came up in a conversation about her husband who recently had an emergency visit to the hospital. After he got out, he would bring up the fact that he was in the hospital but then would not give the real reason for it. Is that because he was ashamed of the real reason? But to my why of thinking, why even mention being in the hospital if you aren't going to tell the truth about why you were there?