Sugar Coating

It seems to me that often unpleasant facts are sugar coated.  That is not to say that it is always appropriate to outline something in vivid detail.  To me this is especially so when it comes to children.  One song I love has a kid asking their parents why something was so and being told “… you’ll know when you’re older.”
But I do not think something unpleasant becomes less so because it is described in different terms – it is only that something unpleasant has been described a certain way.
There is a reason we are told concerning floodwaters. “If it is flooded, forget it.”  Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who think they know better.  They find out the hard way the wisdom of that saying.  One of the reasons we now have a higher car was that Merril was still at an intersection behind other cars, and watched the water rise around her.
Bad things can happen to anyone.  Sugar coating something can lead a person to an incorrect and destructive course of action.  It is one of the reasons why when using power pools that are electric driven, I will always declare aloud what I am doing.  Like “plugging in now,” “turning on now,” or conversely “turning off now.”
It can seem over the top, but it prevents others from acting on assumption or incorrect information (when it is me operating the machinery, I will always check something for myself before acting.)  Not wanting something sugar coated is one of the reasons we so often hear someone saying to a doctor, “give it to me straight doc.”
Only when I know the real state of affairs can I act appropriately.  I prefer to prevent the worst when the worst can be reasonably prevented.  Only when I know the real state of something can I employ the appropriate strategy for dealing with it.  I may be able to prevent the worst or handle the inevitable worst in the best possible way.
The only way I can do that is if I know.  I do not want something sugar coated because it is easier or more palatable.   That does not mean I need to hear shouted “we’re all going to die!!”  More often than not that is overstating the case though it may be true if a large meteorite is plummeting to earth where we happen to be.
That has not happened to me and it is a long shot that it will (though I have learned never to say never) but I have prevented some things that potentially would have happened by being appropriately informed and taking the appropriate course of action.
There are things over which I have no control.  They happen.  Yet even then there is an appropriate course of action.  I am big on assessing and then acting.  Informed enables me to make right choices.  Though it is always better than bad, I do not want to just accept good instead of best.
To me it is all about outcomes.  Something bad need not alter my direction.  Then again something bad can alter my course of action as it should.  Everyone it seems has bad thing happen.  Things where sugar coating only disguises the truth.  But everyone has a choice as to what to do next.  Good is good, but best is better.  Informed can lead to best and even bad can work for my good if I choose.