Honesty

Honesty - lately, I've been slammed with it. I know it is supposed to be a "good" thing, yet honesty seems like a paper cut, one that slices in an instant right across breath and soul and time; it comes out of nowhere and from people who spout such (honesty I mean) with absolute, pure and innocent abandon. How dare they? How unbecoming. Why, it just isn't done.

 

Coming from deep roots of Southern culture - roots thick and ripe like ropes -protocol and expectation, honesty is indeed admired for its surface appeal, shiny like a pool of water on a lazy afternoon, sun reflecting on it, gentle goldfish submerged, blowing kiss bubbles to the surface, just as they're savaged by razored shark teeth, so quickly devoured as to go unnoticed. Why, not even enough to break a sweat - "fiddle dee dee". Such is the shadow behind much honesty.

 

search for tenderness
it isn't hard to find.
You can have the love you need to live.
But if you look for truthfulness
You might just as well be blind.
It always seems to be so hard to give.

Honesty is such a lonely word.
Everyone is so untrue.
Honesty is hardly ever heard.
And mostly what I need from you.

I can always find someone
to say they sympathize.
If I wear my heart out on my sleeve.
But I don't want some pretty face
to tell me pretty lies.
All I want is someone to believe.

Honesty is such a lonely word.
Everyone is so untrue.
Honesty is hardly ever heard.
And mostly what I need from you.

honesty early 14c., "splendor, honor; elegance," later "honorable position; propriety of behavior, good manners; virginity, chastity" (late 14c.), from O.Fr. honesté (Mod.Fr. honnêteté), from L. honestatem (nom. honestas) "honor received from others; reputation, character;" figuratively "uprightness, probity, integrity, virtue," from honestus (see honest). Meaning "moral purity, uprightness, virtue, justness" is from c.1400; in English, the word originally had more to do with honor than honest.

probity early 15c., from M.Fr. probité, from L. probitatem (nom. probitas) "uprightness, honesty," from probus "worthy, good"...

 

http://www.lyrics007.com/Billy%20Joel%20Lyrics/Honesty%20Lyrics.html

 

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=honesty&searchmode=none