Finicky

The truth is finicky.  The truth, on occasion, might be downright meaningless without some form of appropriate context.  I can easily illustrate this with a simple example.

Imagine that I walk into a classroom filled with students who are very nervous about an exam they are about to take.  For the sake of argument, we will say the exam is about trigonometry and the questions are multiple-choice.  As I walk up to the whiteboard in the front of the classroom I say:  “Okay, to ease your minds a bit, I have decided to give you the answer for several of the questions on this exam.”

Naturally, the students will find a bit of relief in this.  They watch quite intently as I find a black marker and then write “d” on the board.  “There you go,” I announce.  I leave the room again.

If more than one question should have “d” marked for the correct response, I have been completely truthful.  I might even go so far as to say that I was not deceptive.  But where is the value in this truth?

--Mitchell Hegman