Must Everything Be True? Useful? Kind?

Is it True? Is it Useful? Is it Kind?

Ori Pomerantz said: “I take the “two out of three” approach to the gates.

If it’s true and useful, it may need saying even if it isn’t kind. `don’t trust Joe, he cheated me and a bunch of other people’ isn’t kind towards Joe.

If it’s true and kind, say it even if it isn’t useful. `Jack did a great job for me, if you ever need a caterer call on him’, for example.

If it’s useful and kind, I may be willing to stretch the truth. Especially when a person needs encouragement to try more. This is particularly true for children.”

The interesting thing is that his first two examples actually pass all three Gates. “Don’t trust Joe. He cheated me and a bunch of other people.” If that is true, then it is useful for people in the community to know who to trust. Wouldn’t YOU want to know where your money will be well spent? Money, after all, is pure trust: a symbol of our time and energy we exchange with others, for the promise of THEIR time and energy. Is it kind? Well, that’s a little trickier. Totally kind to the person you are warning: it saves them pain.

But is it kind to Joe? That will depend upon your sense of morality, purpose, and meaning. We certainly encourage our children to be honest. Why? Simply so they won’t be caught?

The problem with that is that if you believe you are clever enough, you’ll figure you’ll get away with it. But that is where we begin…