Telling the truth. The words are so easy to say. Alas, there are times in life when fulfilling the act is not so easy.
What do we say to a beloved friend who asks for an honest assessment of her wedding gown that we think is absolutely dreadful? Is it okay to lie to a terminally ill child about his dire prognosis? And then there’s the challenge of being truthful with ourselves – about our mistakes, our shortcomings, our missteps. In the end, of course, we have good reason to aspire to truth-telling. As Shakespeare noted in All’s Well that Ends Well, “no legacy is so rich as honesty.” And that’s what a very wise 13-year-old, Lila Rizvi, has come to believe.
Lila Rizvi is an eighth-grade student at the Wheeler School. She lives with her family in Providence.
