The news is exhausting. Not just all the pain and stupidity. It’s that everything requires interpretation. Even if and when someone in public is being straightforward in their speech, we might be forgiven for suspecting they are not. We are not unjustified in assuming everything we are hearing is spin.
You may find you suffer from this same sort of fatigue from dissembling, obfuscation and manipulation at work as well. I sure hope not (been there, and it’s awful). We would pray and work at, for sure, not wanting this kind of experience among those we count as friends, and most certainly not family. But it happens.
We can at least all resolve to let what people experience in us be authentic. In another, I will take flaws, oddballness, even monumental screw-ups over interpersonal dishonesty or double-speak.
Jesus said, “Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’; anything more than this comes from the evil one” (Matthew 5:47 NRSV). People had debased the practice of oath taking by using it in an attempt to cover their insincerity and deceitfulness. Better to just speak plainly.
Save us, Lord, from spin narratives with one another. We see enough of it on the news. May we not devolve into a world where everyone has to guess about everyone else.