Always Honest or Okay to Hold Back?

Well said, and thought provoking, Anne.  I like that quote too.

All of this just begs the question; do we engage the same level of honesty with strangers?  Perfect example, dating. There are any number of books, magazines, and well meaning friends who instruct us on how to date. Most materials written for women tell them that they should never reveal that they are looking for a long-term relationship but should, by her words and actions, manipulate a man in to a relationship.  Articles directed towards men will coach a man on how to "get a woman to the bedroom" by misleading her with ambiguous talk.

Of course, I am referring to extremes in the above examples, but where do we draw the line with being "honest" and with whom?

Why fake anything? Someone with the same level of integrity will resonate with the simple truth.. otherwise its a tiresome avoidance game. Quit reading that crap. Its designed ( smoke screen) to sell perfume,magazines, idealised 'romance', clothing, not in that order...

Because we are of and in our era ,p'raps time to read, again, D.H.Lawrence's 'Lady Chatterley's Lover.'..there's honesty and truth, without pretense and falderall... Lawrence was really talking about 'paralysed from the waist down' Britain  mired in the industrial age denial of truth and beauty..( Clifford Chatterly, injured in WW1) and the relationship between Mellors, the 'Greenman of the Wood'  (you'll know him from May Day)gamekeeper and Constance Chatterley, was an attempt to show the beauty of intimacy without pretense. The price of truth? turn the page, gentle readers....

It is a good point Anna.  I suppose when you get right down to it, these books sell, not because we can't tell that someone is not looking for the same type of relationship we are, but because we want to change them and make them want the same thing we want. What a colossal waste of time and emotional energy.

Perhaps what we need IS to be honest and learn how not to deceive ourselves.

My dog Ned is waaaaaaaaaay smarter than all of us put together..( he does not have to read print...) he can smell a rat from a long way off! You know when a dog approaches someone with 'trubbles'.... no matter what the sounds coming out of the human mouth read..the mutt digs the truth...

I listen to Ned. He's tuned in to the cosmos and all who sail on her.

ROFL! You're funny Anna!

and a Luddite... wot does ROFL mean?