To lie or not to lie

Secrets. We all have them. The thing that you keep to yourself in order not hurt someone, not to reveal your true self, so you have that element of surprise. I will hold my hands up that I have kept many a secret in my time, but it occurred to me lately. Why do we do it? Holding back information and keeping secrets only leads us to lie to keep them hidden when asked about it. I am a complete hater of lies, and confuses me why, to keep a secret from someone, so you don't hurt them, you would lie, which in the end, upon discovery you would hurt them more. Lets face it, all lies come out int he end, and unless its a lie that you are not planning a surprise party when you are, it's not gonna end pretty.

I have been faced with the awful choice many times before, the choice between keeping the secret to myself and lying to cover my tracks, or telling the truth, knowing it would hurt the person. This one time I am thinking of, like many others before, I chose the wrong one. I kept it to myself. I lied to cover my tracks, and all was well. For a while. Questions cropped up, and I lied again, and to cover my lies, I lied again. Well you get the picture, and the picture wasn't pretty. You can judge me for that decision, but lets face it. We have all been there, even when we were young. Telling your mother that you didn't break your toy, that your sibling did it, and the imaginative story that came with that lie. It was easy right? Well I think that's when everyone realised that lying was the easy way out. Well I can clearly say, it is not.

Avoiding the truth, bending the truth, twisting the right, call it what you want, at the end of the day its lies. I know for a fact most people would rather be told the truth, no matter how infuriating it is than be lied to. An example of this is something more innocent. One of my friends opened up to me and my pal one night, whilst drunk, and admitted that he had fancied my closest friend at the time for all of his life. He admired her so much and couldn't speak highly enough of her. Well my pal decided to tell my closest friend what he had said, once everyone had sobered up. Her reaction was priceless. Turns out she had felt the same for quite sometime. What were the chances hey? Well she went straight to him and asked him if what was said was true. Well (lets call him Toby to save his embarrassment) Toby was faced with the decision that all of us fear. To lie or not to lie. Protect his ego, or take the highway. Well he, like many of us, chose to lie. He came up with a story to save his ego and went on his way. My friend was not happy at all. Thing is, his lie had the worst repercussions that he had no idea would happen. His lie, made everyone to believe that my pal and I were liars (although I hadn't told her about what was said, I was still involved as I was also told), losing us friends and causing alot of drama, it then also made my closest friend give up hope and end up dating a another friend of ours, losing any chances that he may have had.
Of course, over time all the issues were resolved, but recently he asked me about that event and I opened up to him about how he missed out. He was so angry that he had missed out on something great by lying.

This is the example I always think of when faced with the decision. To lie or not to lie. That moment someone asks you a question about that thing you are not sure whether you should reveal? Well you never know what the repercussions could be, that come hand in hand with a lie cover up story. How about, from now on, we all just say the truth? You never know when the truth can be in your favor.


Chann