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I don’t think I do.
I do tell lies. Not often. Big still remembers the time I told her a present she found one Christmas was for her cousin, when actually it was for her. I consider that an acceptable lie – particularly as she found out the truth shortly afterwards.
Apparently though, large percentages of the population tell absolute whoppers, and it’s all to make themselves look more impressive. Research from gift experience firm, intotheblue.co.uk reported today in The Independent has people claiming to have met celebrities, (just over 40% of those surveyed apparently. Did I tell you about the time I met Gok Wan?), lying about bungee jumping and skydiving?
I don’t get it. I struggle massively with working out whether people are lying, I generally assume they’re not. I guess however, if lots of people lie, they must assume that other people lie too?
In most cases it seems, work colleagues are on the receiving end of these untruths. I don’t recall feeling the need to embroider my life outside work when I was in an office. I wonder if the tale I’ve told about spending the night in A&E after someone I worked with tried to commit suicide is considered an exagerration? (I really wish it was. Happened the day I’d put my notice in to become a programmer instead of a residential social worker. A decision I’ve never regretted, oddly enough. When other members of IT staff ran around panicking about approaching release dates, or critical bugs, I just thought – no one died. Which probably made me seem somewhat blase or callous.)
So, what’s going on? Since when did pretending to be in the armed forces become an acceptable ice breaker? (I do wonder how many women are claiming that sort of thing. Or are they focussing on the celebrities they’ve been hanging out with?
Do you know when someone is lying to you? I tend to take people on face value until they’ve proved otherwise, I find it a (slightly) less stressful way to carry on. But I’m wondering whether I should be being a bit more suspicious.
I’m second guessing everything at the moment, still slotting everything back into place since the whole autism diagnosis. Art is helping. But every time I find out something that’s different to how I work, it feels like I’ve taken a huge stride back. I will put it all together. But do people really have to make things so difficult? Whatever happened to just telling the truth?
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