Is Excess of Everything Bad?

It is said that excess of anything is bad.

This phrase is often used to imply that too much of even a good thing is bad. Recently, in conversation with a friend, this phrase came up. I felt at that time that there was something about the phrase that was not right. But I did not get a lot of time to think about it, so I let it go then.

On thinking about it later, I am convinced now that though the phrase is not wrong, it is not entirely accurate either. Of course, the statement holds true for most things, but there are many things - good things - that you can never have excess of and hence they cannot be bad.

If something is good than you can never have excess of it. If you seem to have excess of it, then you are doing it wrong. This might sound a bit confusing, but if you think about it a little, you will, I am sure, understand what I am trying to say.

To quote an example, let us continue from one of my previous posts and take truth as an example. Can there be a thing like excess of truth, and can that be bad?

According to me, the answer to the first question is a huge "No". Truth just is - an excess of truth is exaggeration, and any lack of truth is a lie. So, you can say the truth a many times as you want to, but you will never have excess of it, and hence, it will never be bad for you.

I believe that excess of many good things can never be bad. Do you agree, or do you believe that "excess of everything is bad"?

Speaking the Truth

I am sure there is not even a single person in the entire world who has not said a lie, except the little, new born baby who is yet to learn the art of talking.

The question, however, is: Why do we feel the need to lie?

In other words, the same question could be put as : Do we want to speak the truth?

It is often said that a lie that brings a smile on someone's face is better than the truth that can make one cry. I feel that the preceding statement is just an excuse devised by us humans to justify our weaknesses. We try to avoid uncomfortable situations, and we also do not want others to think bad about us. So, we choose to lie to either avoid crying or making others cry.

But, a smile that has been brought about by a lie is just as false as the lie that has made the smile possible. A lie is un-natural, simply because it is a narration of events that never happened. The truth is, therefore, natural because when truth is spoken, it is a mere reproduction of events that actually happened. No artificiality is involved in speaking the truth.

It is but common observation that anything natural is good, and anything artificial may seem good in the short run but is never good in the long run. The same is applicable for truth and lies too. A lie might bring a smile on your face in the short run, but a lie does not have the power to keep that smile on the face in the long run.

Mahatma Gandhi was one of the strongest advocates of truth that ever walked this earth. On the face of it the principle of truth sounds like just another principle, but if we delve deeper into this subject it will not be long before we find that if we walk the path of truthfulness steadily, we will be doing a great favor to ourselves.

Every other principle can be considered as an extension of the principle of truth.

So, once again, if the principle of truth is that important, are we ready to embrace it wholeheartedly, or are we going to use the excuse of lying-so-that-someone-can-smile.

It is also said that in this imperfect world of ours, someone who speaks the truth all the time will be seen as an aberration to the rule - a mad man. But, I think, that is another excuse devised by us humans to avoid speaking the truth all the time. No one has tried speaking the truth all the time, and so we can not say what would happen to someone who speaks the truth each and every time. But it is no secret that anyone who has tried to stick to the truth as much as possible has achieved great heights in their chosen fields.

To end, I will modify a quote of Mahatma Gandhi, and put it as:

"We may never be strong enough to be entirely truthful in thought, word and deed. But we must keep truthfulness as our goal and make strong progress towards it."