Sincerely Yours

We sign off our letters, Sincerely Yours.

But are we sincere?

Do  people in our lives really know how we feel?

Or do we hold back?

Do we have secret thoughts and feelings about ourselves that we don't share with them?

Do we have secret thoughts and feelings about them, that we don't share with them?

We may think we have good reasons to keep some of our thoughts, feelings, and actions secret:

If the hidden truth is about ourselves, the truth may be embarrassing or devastating.

We are scared of our image being tarnished.

We are afraid people will shy away from us, if they knew something about us.

Some people were scandalized when I admitted to being carried out drunk from restaurants in my younger days.

If the hidden truths are, not about us, but about other people we deal with, it is because we may not want to hurt their feelings.

Or we may want to keep the peace.

Hidden truths can be small truths.

Or big, devastating truths.

A depression.

A desire to end your life.

A communicable disease .

An addiction.

Or just not being what, or who, everyone thinks we are.

Examples:

Perception: Everyone thinks you are rich.

Reality: You are bankrupt.

Perception: Everyone thinks you are an upstanding member of society.

Reality: You have a terrible addiction, or you are, or have been involved in, some seedy underhand dealings where you used your power to use, manipulate, bribe, seduce, threaten, or deceive innocent, powerless, or vulnerable people.

Perception: Everyone thinks you are pro-life and care about children.

Reality: You have had children out of wedlock that you couldn't care 2 hoots about.

Perception: Publicly, you are outspoken in your disapproving thoughts about homosexuality.

Reality: You are a closet homosexual.

The truth is a terrible and scary thing.

When I suffered a depression, I initially hid it from everybody.

It was my big, devastating hidden truth.

You can see how the successful owner of a business, who seemingly has everything - " a great business, a fit body, a great marriage - would want to hide the fact she is depressed.

And yet, the more devastating the truth, the more it needs to be poured from one heart into another heart.

Even if the truth knocks you off your pedestal.

For sure, having a depression knocked me off my pedestal as the "gal who had it all".

But I knew keeping it a secret was not the right thing to do.

If there was any hope for me to recover from it, it would come from sharing it with someone else, which I did.

So these are my thoughts on the truth...

I believe sharing the truth helps us more than it hurts us.

Hopefully, this means you can count on me to tell you the truth.

Just say, "Minoo, I want your sincere advice, " and I will give it to you. Sometimes I will give you the truth, even when you don't ask me for it.

This is because truth has become a value to me.

Which is why I am writing a blog post about it.

Signing off,

Sincerely yours,

Minoo