Bend the truth

A pencil sticking out of a class of water.

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Phrase: Bend the truth

If you deny it, I won’t believe you.

We all bend the truth to some extent, sometimes.

Yes, I know everyone who reads my posts is a good person, and good people don’t tell lies.

They do, however, on occasion, bend the truth.


By that, I mean they tell so-called white lies.

These lies are not untrue, but they are not 100% truthful either.

They exist in a grey zone between truth and lies.


There is a lesson that I created about this very topic called Moms, Dads, Kids & Lies.

It’s not about children lying to their parents but about parents telling white lies to their children.

Have you ever told your child to stay away from the river because a Kappa might get them?

Perhaps a family pet passed away, and you told your son it was now ‘sleeping’ for a long time.

That, my friend, is what it means to bend the truth.

Imagine if you are a secretary at the Osaka office of a huge international corporation.

Someone asks what your job is, and you say you work with so and so.

Yes, using the name makes it sound like an impressive career, perhaps more impressive than it is.

You did not tell a lie, but you did bend the truth.

There are people out there who believe we should always tell the truth no matter what the consequences.

Then others say that bending the truth once in a while is required to avoid uncomfortable situations or unnecessary emotional upset.

Do you prefer when people are brutally honest with you or prefer them to bend the truth?


Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test

This post is understandable by someone with at least a 7th-grade education (age 12).

On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 77.

The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.



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