What is truth? That?s not a classic line from Shakespeare. Pontius Pilate threw it sarcastically at Jesus, and he might as well have lived in 2005, where people have to evaluate the veracity and trustworthiness of a multitude of assertions made in various media every day.

Forget the media, what about just dealing with one?s kids? Good grief. Unsuspecting parents do not remember that one sure sign puberty has infiltrated the situation is the shaving of straightforward communication in the disguising of what ought to be simple statements.

A father asks: ?Did you do your chores?? He thinks he?s done all that?s necessary in attempting to ascertain the truth, the situation as it actually exists.

His adolescent responds, ?Yes,? with eyes roving around the ceiling and a kind of dance in the voice. You have to learn to read the person and not just listen to the content. ?Yes,? in this instance actually means: ?I got one done, and I started another, but gave it up for later so I could hang with my friends.?

There was full intent to get them done, so they were as good as done. What is the truth? The truth to one person may not be the same as the truth for the other. Are both true? They both are for one but not for the other.

It?s amazing how current and relevant Pilate?s question to Jesus actually was. Perhaps an equally relevant question might be: ?What is the opposite of telling the truth??

Many people have said: ?The Greeks had a word for it.? In this case, they had two words for it. The first comes from the tradition of Greek theatre in which a performer would carry on a dialogue, but he was to play both parts, speaking as it were out of one side of his mouth and then answering out of the other. In a negative sense it came to stand for an actor who had not identified with his role, and the resulting meanings were associated with play-acting or disguising, and then with hypocrisy. The second word meant simply to lie, to clearly express the opposite of the truth. That word became a common prefix to anything one might want to qualify as false, such as pseudo-intellectual or pseudo-religious.

I prefer the truth. It?s much less complicated to operate truthfully, because I don?t have to remember what I am supposed to be like in any given context, or with any given person. I can just be what I am ? what I am currently and actually thinking and feeling. What makes whatever I do or say consistent over time is the person I really am. If I am authentic, l am not playing a role, and I will not have to remember past dialogue in order to identify with my character. I will BE the person I?m attempting to communicate.

Now, there are times when I cannot recall or I am mistaken, but in those cases I am genuine. I am me being mistaken. What results is me feeling stupid and attempting to apologise or make amends. What does not result is me getting caught in a lie.

I prefer to tell the truth, and I prefer to have truthful and authentic people as my close friends. I can trust them. I can relate to them. Inauthentic people, people who put on a social fa?ade and seem fake, just drive me crazy. It?s as if I am expected to play along with their self-deception, and I just hate that. Won?t tolerate it. Choose not to be conformed to the lie involved with it. Life is too short for such foolishness.