saying the right thing at the right time, doing the right thing at the right time

one time i asked my brother what was the meaning of life. my brother told me, it's kind of like in those little booklets you buy if you're going to visit a foreign land where they speak another language. you know, like little phrases like where is the bathroom? i would like to eat breakfast now. etc.

and that's what life is. you say these little phrases. they get you through life. you say the right thing at the right time, and you do the right thing at the right time.

at the time my brother said this, i didn't know what i thought of it. i didn't know if i thought it was a superficial philosophy. now, however, i know it is a very deep philosophy.

also, my brother said he wanted to be the Buddha. so when he was conversing with me, he wanted there to be no "me" left. no "selfishness" left. no "ego" left. just the conversation.

so when i would write letters to him and when he would get my letter, i would call him sometimes and say a letter was in the mail. "oh good," he would say. "i like to get your letters." later i realized that he was simply saying the right thing at the right time. yet it was the morally right thing to do.

there are people in this world who claim that the correct policy is always to tell the truth. certainly there is a time and a place to "tell the absolute truth." there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. and a time to unburden your heart. but usually, the appropriate thing to say is the appropriate thing to say. the loving thing to say is the correct thing to say.

"a word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a frame of silver" --Proverbs

likewise, there is a kind of situation that can arise where if you follow "the policy of truth" (as depeche mode says) you will go from bad situation to worse situation. so tell the truth, but tell it slant, as emily dickenson says.