America’s I Didn’t Do It Problem.
Children often deny things they have done even when the evidence is plainly seen. It can be comical to see a child with peanut butter and jelly on their cheek claim, I didn’t do it when asked where the peanut butter and jelly sandwich went.
People frequently avoid what they don’t like, want to acknowledge, or face. Examples big and small dwell in our personal lives.
As adults, we describe this “truth avoidance” as lying, procrastination, denial, and enabling.
We make deals with ourselves and others to avoid dealing with the things we don’t want to face.
We find methods that provide us comfort and allow us to continue avoiding unresolved issues.
We all do this. It makes us less effective in life. In most cases, it doesn’t mean we are bad people.
Examples like this are issues of personal integrity.
Integrity is, most of the time, thought of something like honesty. That’s true, and I don’t want to lose sight of that, but let’s focus on a different aspect of integrity.
A quick Google of the word integrity tells me, in addition to honesty, integrity is; “the state of being whole and undivided.” The included synonyms are unity, unification, wholeness, coherence, cohesion, togetherness, solidarity, and coalition…
