PURE TRUTH, or TMI
Friday, April 23, 2021
Truth in advertising and labelling is essential.
If we are buying orange juice, the label tells us a degree of purity or a percentage of ‘real juice.’
So do our labels on many other products, from booze to baby food – we want to know what we are getting is what we think we are getting.
If it matters enough that we know something contains ‘new white material only,’ or specific percentages of food nutrients, or percentage of alcohol – shouldn’t our statements to one another come with a verifying label too?
If I write a letter to a client, they should expect the truth.
If I write a column talking about my feelings, readers should expect the truth.
If I write an advertising blurb to market someone’s house, buyers should trust that it is truthful.
Besides trusting ‘the truth’ from anyone, we also want to know ‘what it is we ought to know that we aren’t being told’ and from there, it gets tricky.
The truth we tell comes in shades of grey, black and white, obfuscation.
Some questions are answered with a yes, or no, or I don’t know.
Pure answers are not always pure fulsome truth – because of what is left out, shaded, not actually asked directly, so in turn, it is not answered then or fully.
The term ‘microscopic truth-telling’ was taught to me by someone I dated a long time ago; as short-lived relationships go, it was fun and short but not a right-fit.
Looking back, it didn’t end with fulsome truth-telling – the way we dodge confronting or exposing the whole truth when giving someone disappointing news. In that case, a clear ending but not a full-throated ‘here is all the information’ disclosure.
But what did stick with me is the ‘microscopic truth-telling’ element – and the more I work at improving that element of my behavior in personal and business matters, I get better results and often find the apparent difficult path wasn’t nearly as problematic because of the ‘full, true, and plain disclosure.’
There is always a brake to apply, a check-yourself element, not wanting ‘too much information’ (TMI) or disclosing too much information. That gets tricky – because it’s hard to tell ‘all the required information’ in the proper context, in the correct sequence, so we can be faithful to one another and manage the negotiation we are wrestling. Unfortunately, we rarely control the sequencing of the telling and miss-stepping, so we get cross-threaded and fail to remember our audience is both logical and emotional – seeing through us as if we are transparent no matter how hard we try to hide …
Should we mandate microscopic truth labelling for humans, or do we have enough troubles already?
Reader feedback:
Thanks for the reminder, Mark! I recently started using a game app called “ Elevate “ to improve my vocabulary, writing and on-the-fly math skills. In addition to actually reading and writing, it’s a fun and effective way to improve. For a busy world with a short attention span, the trick is to “gamify it”! Cheers, PW, Calgary, AB
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