"TELL ALL THE TRUTH BUT TELL IT SLANT--"

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), Amherst, MA

Tell all the Truth but tell it slant -

Success in Circuit lies

Too bright for our infirm Delight

The Truth's superb surprise

As Lightning to the Children eased

With explanation kind

The Truth must dazzle gradually

Or every man be blind -

                Emily Dickinson

There are truths in my life that I need to tell slant even to myself. Maybe in your life too.  The poem itself is telling us something slant, isn't it?  Not telling us outright that not every truth can we bear frontally.  A kindness to ourselves and others.  Some truths we back away from, the recognition too hard.  Not the good truths: not "I am loved," or "I am understood." But the ones we need know only because they are just that:  true.  And too harmful if left disguised. Truths that are important to our souls.

Dickinson isn't counseling denial, no, just circuitry.  Which I am doing as I write now, not naming facts, not giving examples.  We each know what truths of ours can blind, ourselves or another. We share when we can, temper when we must.  And we remember:     

"Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth."

1 Corinthians 13:6