I wouldn’t dare defile Douglas Adam’s memory by not mentioning that you should keep a towel with you at all times, but my second contender is a surprisingly short three-parter:
- never lie.
- never tell the whole truth.
- never pass up a chance to use a real bathroom.
A partner having a rule to say that you should NEVER tell the whole truth would be an instant red flag in any relationship I am in.
The fact that that kind of rule exists for them means that they will never be completely honest with me, and I won’t accept that.
Now, obviously, there are times when you use a white lie or omit stuff, that is normal, but to constantly omit stuff, to the point where a rule is needed?
Nope.
I actually agree! Mutual trust relies on clear, full communication to the extent of one’s abilities.
I think the problem with the original statement is the absolute “never” which i defaulted to taking as a generality when interacting with impersonal third parties. This was an unreasonable assumption in my part.
Fir example, I’m going to lie to Facebook and Google. Period. But never to friends and SOs, and rarely to individual humans outside of survival in threatening circumstances.