Today's question. What is the single worst quality a person can have?
Wow. That's a toughy.
My first thought that came to my mind would be to have a character of one who lies and fibs. I suppose because that is a pet peeve of mine. If you want to ruffle my feathers, just lie to me.
Of course, I think being a character of lies encompasses other things that are bad qualities.
Liar.
A character of lies tends to not admit ones own faults and places blame on others.
Dishonest.
A character of lies tends to build on the lies to keep from being found out which brings forth a multitude of bad things that could happen as that hole is dug deeper and deeper.
Con Artist.
A character of lies tends to cheat because the little things of truth do not matter, even if it is just cheating in a board game or something as big as cheating on taxes.
Storyteller.
A character of lies tends to tell stories that are half truths and half falsities for attention getting, making them selfish.
False witness.
A character of lies tends to make untruthful claims to get what one wants.
Phony.
A character of lies tends to have no one's trust and even when truthful, brings doubt.
I used to teach my children as one of those "life lessons" that I wanted them to carry on forever that if you lie to someone and when you need that person to believe you in the most dire situation, that person will not believe you. If you always tell the truth, people will believe in you when you most need them to believe in you.
Deceiver.
A character of lies tends to be someone who doesn't even know oneself, even deceiving ones self.
Another "life lesson" I tried to get across to my children when they were young was that of character. I would tell them to do "character checks" in that if they ever found they would act differently around one group of people than another, that would mean that attribute had a character flaw. Those character traits whereby you are the same regardless of who you are around are truly who you are. I wanted them to learn who they were, choose who they wanted to be, and be that person all the time.
Do they remember any of these "life lessons" I would preach to them? Somehow I doubt it, but maybe, just maybe, they can still hear my voice in their head.
November 2014