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A couple of weeks ago I watched a documentary about Bob Marley that fucked me up.

I don’t know what vaps struck me that made me want to watch the movie in the first place, but it was dead interesting. The origin of The Wailers, Lee “Scratch” Perry (allegedly) pirating their music and stealing the rights to it, rumours that Michael Manley was a secret Communist and that the CIA was supplying weapons to Jamaica, there was so much shit I did not know that my head was nearly spinning. Plus of course so much great music that I was running to demonoid iTunes faster than you can say download.

But here’s the fucked up part about it: the movie also featured extensive interviews with two of his “girlfriends”, and many many stories about his infidelity. Plus an interview with Rita Marley in which she said that when she refused to sing backup vocals for “Turn Your Lights Down Low” because he wrote it for his side bitch it was a big problem. And how he used to call her in the middle of the night to get girls out of his hotel room when he wanted them to go.

The whole thing was so sordid I almost shut the damn movie off.

Call me an ostrich, call me naive, call me a censor, call me what you will, but I just don’t need that much truth in my life. I didn’t want to know that shit about Bob Marley and now that I do it changes the way I feel about him. I never much cared for Turn Your Lights Down Low and now I hate it even more. Why? Because it’s tainted with all this information that has no reason to be rattling around in my brain.

I feel the same way about Michael Rappaport’s Beats Rhymes & Life. I was chomping at the bit to watch it the minute I heard it was coming out, but watching it left me feeling very dejected. Again it was dead interesting, but filled with so much information I just did not want to know about ATCQ that I can never feel the same way about them again. I feel kind of the way a little kid would feel if a big bully came along and pissed all over her bike. She can still ride it and have fun, but it’s irreparably soiled.

It’s not that I have a problem with the truth. I believe in truth-telling, I just don’t feel like I need so damn much of it all the time. I think that when someone needs to know the truth in order to form an informed decision or opinion, it behooves us to tell it. But when we don’t, sometimes the truth is just sensationalism with bad PR. I’m not saying lie, but what’s wrong with a little truth lite?

I feel the same way when it comes to my personal relationships. Even more so because people become so fragile when they’re connected to one another. And as much as the world would have you believe that the cornerstone of a good relationship is complete honesty, in my world it’s delicacy that’s essential. So I don’t need the full truth raw dog all the time; a little truth lite goes a long way toward harmony. I’m on a quest right now to school Mr. Max on the art of the white lie, because as much as I value his honesty, sometimes he says shit that just get the gears of my brain spinning wildly and I kind of want to knock all his pretty white teeth out for it.

I think people do each other a disservice with their blind obsession with the whole truth, I really do. I don’t need to know all the petty resentments that pass through my friends’ brains, nor do they need to hear about the inner workings of mine. I tell what’s important, what’s helpful and edifying, and I save the rest for voice notes to Lala. There’s a shit tonne about me, my past, and my current life that my mister knows nothing about; nor does he need to. Just as I don’t want to know every detail of his life. (Well actually I do, but that’s just because I’m greedy. Not because knowing it essential to my well-being or anything like that).

At the end of the day, life is miserable enough without all this unvarnished truth being shoved down our throats all the fucking time. How about a little spin? A little soft focus? A little truth lite?

But what say you guys? Are you advocates of the lighter version of the truth or do you prefer to give it raw? Do you want to know everything there is to know about your friends, lovers, and idols or do you prefer the need-to-know basis? Speak your piece in the comments.