Lies in My Own Life

9/8/09

For English hw

There are many lies in my own life, but not nearly as many as Frederic from The Chameleon. I like to think that most of them are to protect others or aren't bad lies. I told a lie some time ago about why I wasn't with a friend. We had been playing extremely competitive ping pong and when tempers on both sides got high I decided to walk away. Stumbling upon his parent sleeping on the couch I fumbled over a simple, but believable lie to explain why we weren't together. Alas, parents have been around for a while and figured out why I was reading alone upstairs why he was relaxing with a musical instrument.

I think it is more common for people to lie to themselves than lying to others. We lie internally all the time ranging from "That can't be my alarm clock this early," to "I'm pretty sure I did not cheat off that girl's test last period," to "No, he can't possibly be dead." Ok, some of these are hypothetical, but the important thing to realize is that the majority of lies to ourself are when we know the truth and don't want to face the consequences. It is easy for morals to get lost inside our conscience because we aren't checking ourselves and it's easy to slip and not have good character. It can be easy to push an uncomfortable truth back into the recesses of our brain and say you'll deal with it later.

A common lie I allow myself to believe is when people tell me that I am better at something than I actually am. They may not directly say it, but I can tell they want me to know they think I am good. I can tell it's not the truth (notice I didn't say it was a lie) by how often they repeat things and by my own personal observances. I allow myself to believe the lie despite my knowledge of what may or may not be true because I (and everyone else in the world I believe) like to hear my personal talents and am easily disillusioned if someone wants to praise me. I may know deep down I may not be as good as they say, but it is much easier to live happily ignorant than with the truth depressing you. It's just like pushing the uncomfortable truth to the back of the mind.