I had a surprising phone call once from a woman who I had briefly meet while dating. I hadn’t talked to her for more than six months, and out of the blue she calls me. She explains to me “I noticed you had called me a few times” and said other things. I had clearly not called her several times, because I don’t push myself on anyone. If they aren’t interested, I just let them go.

I am sharing this now because it is surprising how often people feel that they can lie to you and you won’t care. I do care about the truth, especially in relationships. I don’t think that you can tell the truth all of the time, because there are things that people do not have the right or need to know. For example, if I had a medical problem my friends don’t need to know the full extent of it. I think that we should only share as much as we feel other people can accept and deal with. Anything more is kind of pushing them to adopt our values.

What do you think?