There is clever talk and then there is honest talk … clever talk is not necessarily dishonest talk, but it is a little (or a lot) more calculated, a little (or a lot) more cautious and perhaps a little (or a lot) more aware of the audience and the impact it might have on the speaker’s reputation, position and status. honest talk tends to come raw with passion. it tends to be more immediate and more intense and more desperate. honest talk holds nothing back … it is rarely clever because it is all too often emotive. I have been led to believe that honest talk is more hurtful, but I have found that it is clever talk that leaves the larger wounds. clever talk is cunning … usually driven by an agenda … usually void of feeling (or at least measured or contrived). I have found that honest talk usually hides nothing whereas clever talk is deceitful … saying one thing and meaning another … throwing out bits of truth and holding back others so that the picture that is painted might be true in its form but a lie in its colour and structure. clever talk is used by manipulators who have their own goals to achieve. how sad that it is clever talk that is highly prized and encouraged … and the more clever we become, the more lost and confused we seem to be …