Be Careful What You Ask For

#118: You Just Might Get It


"I want the truth!"
"You want the truth?? You can't handle the truth!"

And so I sit here wondering if I should have just yelled that line the way Jack Nicholson did. That's the problem with people asking for the truth. They're not always ready to handle it.

I have a friend who asked for the truth just recently and I, wanting to help, gave it to him in the most direct and detailed way possible. He reeled. Clutched his stomach. Curled. And rolled away like those armadillos when you kick them hard enough.

Of course I didn't kick this person. I felt I had poured in enough care and concern in my words but apparently those mean nothing in the light of truth that one is not ready to face. And so I let him go. I should have listened to my mother when she adviced me to stop trying to help a person who refuses to be helped.

Early today, my boss sent me a message setting a meeting at 9am tomorrow for a "talk." I had previously asked him what it was about but he didn't want to say anything. Oh boy. This won't be good. When I finally decided to answer his text 5 hours later, I challenged him to reveal the meeting agenda. "Let's talk on how we can work as a team. Think about it already so we can have a good and honest discussion."

Uhm. Yeah. Here's another request for honesty - misguided or otherwise. And I bet he won't be ready for a real honest discussion. Ready to talk, probably. Ready to listen, hmm... rather unlikely. In fact, that's the reason we haven't been able to work as a team in the past 9 months. But I don't know if he's ready to hear that. And I, on my end, have become wary of people asking for the truth. Maybe I should start practicing Jack Nicholson's booming delivery of that famous line instead.

"You want the truth??"
"YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!"