There are actually several different versions of the truth

[Nikia]

I used to think that it was good to always be honest and to tell the truth. Lately, though, I've realized that there are often several versions of the truth. If you tell someone about an event that you've experienced, you do not say everything about the situation, especially if it happened over a longer time frame. We often use this to make a point about ourselves, make a point about something specific like another person, or make a point in general. As a result, we often leave out bits while talking extensively about minor details in the overall scheme of things. Sometimes, we might exaggerate things or include things that didn't quite happen that way but better support the point that we were trying to make. Depending on the audience and our point, we might have a few different versions of the story. For example, I have both my life growing up poor stories and my life growing up privledged stories. A while back, I provided a summary with both sides for my social class thread but I have told some people exclusively one or the other with slight variations. So what does telling the truth the mean and would you agree, there are actually multiple versions of the truth that we could tell that would still be the truth.

[SOteric]

1. I often think about truth

I like to think of it as a multi-faceted jewel.

Most of us can never really know all there is to know about an individual. And while many are sweet and simple, there are a great many people who are complex and profound. I think the more complicated a person one is, the less clear, the less objective is truth about that individual.

My family was well-to-do in Italy before they moved to this country. Then they were relatively poor until I was about 12 years old, at which time they became rather well-to-do again. The entire story of my upbringing isn't available to all the people that I might meet, and certainly it isn't always available to a horde of relative strangers on a messge board. So, if in empathising with a fellow poster about the austere conditions of my childhood one day I've given an impression, that does not make less true the impression next week of having done most of my clothes shopping in Milan.

I think what you're discussing though is less about truth and more about how much of a complex life one communicates in relatively abbreviated circumstance.

Only a high functioning Autistic or someone with Asbergers would be inclined to list every detail of their perception of an event, or the entirety of a history marginally relevant to a conversation. We make choices about what we confide and in what detail. The subject of my empathising shouldn't become "SOteric's experiences with poverty" if my intention is to empathise with someone else's pain over their situation. So I make choices about what relevant points to make, which bits of comfort to offer and how to communicate those things without detracting from the original intent of the statements.