Experimenting With Truth

I really enjoyed Gandhi’s Experiments With Truth. I found it to be very entertaining and well-written and I will look forward to reading more of Gandhi’s work. I was very interested in his opinion that in order to develop good handwriting, a child should first learn to draw. I will keep that in mind when I am teaching my boys.
Ooh, I felt I could relate to Gandhi’s experience with his friend, the bad influence. I constantly considered myself to be a reformer of friends however my character was not developed enough to hold fast to my convictions and instead I usually wound up getting dragged down to places that I never thought I would see myself. As Gandhi said, “a man takes in vice far more readily than virtue.” I disagreed when he believed that hiding the deed from his parents was no departure from the truth, although his conscience obviously got the better of him on this one eventually. I, too used that excuse a number of times, believing that omitting information was not really lying (ah, the famous Seinfeld episode with the ‘yada yada yada’…). Eventually, I realized how exhausting it was to have to juggle the truth around the lies and I knew that this could not be real honesty; even in its most difficult moments, honesty was not nearly as stressful as being dishonest. It took awhile to reach the art of tactful truth and I am still nowhere near adequate but at least I am conscious of it, and I am striving and I am much happier now and carry much less weight on my shoulders.
I was rather surprised at Gandhi, keeping company with that friend and allowing himself to be tempted. It was interesting to note Gandhi’s realizations of self in regard to the topic of friends. His understanding of his motivations and his moral lapses in these circumstances brought me to a greater understanding of my own relationships and now, with this new awareness I feel properly armed to handle any misguided friends that may come my way. I will not hold them responsible for my decisions, they are free to do what they like because they have not set out to hold the same values that I do, and they are not as hard on themselves as far as judgement of action, as I so I cannot be mad at them for not making the choices that I would make, I can only be mad at myself because I know the direction that my decisions should take.