201When people know exactly where they are, they can
go somewhere from there. But being “lost” is a function
of dishonesty. And when we’re lost, or dishonest, any-
where we go from there is wrong. When we start with a
false reading, there’s no direction home.
Like Bob Dylan’s rolling stone, we don’t know who
we are. We feel, at the core, “like a complete unknown.”
Truth, on the other hand, is clear, complete, and com-
pellingly vivid. It is solid and strong, so it can hold us
steady as we climb.
“Truth,” said poet John Keats, “is beauty.”
The more honest we are with others and ourselves
about current reality, the more energy and focus we
gather. We don’t have to keep track of what we told one
person or what we told another.
One of the best and most positive explanations of
the beauty of personal integrity was expressed by
Nathaniel Branden in The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem.
Branden, unlike most writers on the subject, sees truth
and integrity as a positive part of the process of self-
esteem. His point is not that we owe it to other people’s
sense of morality to be honest, but that we owe it to
ourselves.
“One of the great self-deceptions,” said Branden, “is
to tell oneself, ‘Only I will know.’ Only I will know that
I am a liar; only I will know that I deal unethically with
people who trust me; only I will know that I have no
intention of honoring my promise. The implication is
thatmy judgment is unimportant and that only the judg-
ment of others counts.”
Branden’s writing on personal integrity is inspiring
because it’s directed at creating a happier and stronger
self, not at a universal appeal for morality.
One of the ways we describe a work of art that is
sloppy and unfinished is as “a mess.” The problem with
Connect truth to beauty