The Washington herald., 1919-01-03
Be Honest With Yourself
By DOROTHY DIX
THE WORLDS HIGHEST PAID WOMAN WRITER

According to the old adage, there
are two people We should never try
to deceive-our lawyer and our doc
tor. In reality there is a third indi-
vidual to whom we should be even
more careful to tell the truth. the
whole truth and nothing but the
truth, and that is ourself.
Instead of doing this, however. it
is precisely little old I to whom We
lie most shamelessly, with whom we
are never honest or frank or candid !;
whom we mislead with false and
baseless hopes and expectations; be-
fore whom we camouflage our mo-
tives and whom we deceive at every
turn in life.
Why we fool ourselves nobody
knows, unless it is that our vanity
would not permit US to know the
truth about ourselves and still live.
but among all human vagaries none
is so queer as the amusing little
game of make believe that we play
with ourselves instead of facing the
facts in the case.
1t seems an innocent enough little
game. like children dressing up and
pretending that they are princes. and
princesses, Indian chiefs and pirates.
But childish games are always dan
gerous for grown-ups, and by the
time we have deceived ourselves into
thinking that we are angels or
heroes or great geniuses the time has
gone by when We might have made
successes of the things we were really
capable of being and doing.
We can understand why people
should try to deceive other people
There may be some possible gain in
it. But why they should try to de-
ceive themselves is a mystery past
finding out, for that Is bound to bring
them loss. Yet they do. As an ex-
ample of this just take such a simple
matter as ones health.
Did you ever know anyone to ad-
nit that the thing that he liked to do
was injurious to him? The inveterate
smoker will tell you that tobacco
soothes his nerves: the drunkard, that
his system requires a stimulant. The
bon vivant is sure that lobster New
burg is just what dyspeptic stom-
ach requires. and that he has some
obscure heart malady instead Of being
the victim of over-eating.
Women with small feet never admit
that they caught a cold by going out
IN sloppy weather with thin soled
pumps and silk stockings on. Ladies
with beautiful shoulders have no sus-
picion that they acquire bronchitis
from sitting in a draught in a decol-
lete dress at the theater.
You never hear a sick person say,
"Of course I'm sick and I deserve to
be sick. I ate too much and drank too
much, and exercised too little. I
ruined my constitution by dissipation,
and I'm paying the inevitable debt to
nature" Oh no. The theory that ill
health is a mysterious dispensation
of providence, visited upon us for
some inscrutable purpose we cannot
understand, was invented as a kind of
smoke screen TO hide from our own
eyes the truth that we bring our own
i'll health upon U.S.
Most of our failures in life are en-
tirely due to our inability to be honest
with ourselves. We would like to sue
ceed, but we're not willing to buy
success at the price of giving our
abilities a cold calm appraisal.
We never say to ourselves, "I'm a
person of very mediocre ability.
have no especial talent. I lack origi-
nality and initiative and executive
faculty. The best I can say for my
self is that I am not lazy, so I'll get
into some business where good, faith
ful plodding work will count"
oh no. We all do the Ananias stunt
to ourselves. and tell ourselves that
we are wonderful and brilliant and
destined to set the world on IRE, and