2013-09-15 – Last April Fools’ Day I proposed having a kind of anti-April Fools’ Day on October 1. It is called Diogenes Day, named after the ancient Greek cynic who embarked on a search for an honest man. Needless to say, Diogenes was unsuccessful. Some lie more than others, but none of us are perfectly truthful. Diogenes Day is meant to honor the search for honesty, not to achieve the impossible.

Truth is a funny thing.

I learned about this in college. One of my dorm buddies decided to fight decadence by vowing never to lie. He then went around campus telling everyone he met every unflattering thing he could think about them. Needless to say, he gave truth a bad name.

But was my buddy really truth telling? Was it true that he only had negative thoughts about people? Perhaps his unflattering comments were true in a microscopic way. But which of the people he called stupid had done a good deed for him that he didn’t thank? Which of the people he called ugly had given him an important insight that he didn’t acknowledge? Which of  the people he called liars had said truthfully that they loved him?

We choose our truths, just as we choose our lies.

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[UPDATE: Go to my Diogenes Day page to see other DD posts.]