If you’ve read my blog for a while you’d know that I really think that honesty is important. Being honest keeps you out of trouble and also gets you out of trouble. If Jerry Sandusky just says, “I rape children” instead of making a mockery of the ordeal and he gets sent to jail, I really feel people will be relieved that justice was served. Instead he claims innocence and now he goes through our judicial system which is severely flawed (think OJ). He’s going to have kids testifying against him which is horrible in itself because it’s nearly impossible to prove what happened if no one saw it. If people just tell the truth all the time, the world would be a better place. With that being said, there are times to lie and I will explain them.

At the bball game on Monday I rolled my ankle and was sitting on the bench for the end of the game talking to one of our few spectators. We were talking about running and she was telling me how she was doing some run in Allentown near some landmark or something and she asked “do you know where that is?” I didn’t but rather than have her explain it to me I just said “yes.” There’s no point to saying no and having her explain it to me. It’s meaningless data that just takes up time with no purpose. This was a little white lie that can’t hurt anyone.

It’s OK to lie when random people ask how you’re doing. “How are you” is not a question that people want an answer to. It’s just another way of saying hello. I’m consistently “well” or “fine.” This can sometimes be a lie and I’m pretty sure I can get away with it 100%. People don’t want to hear the answer “I’m feeling shitty.” It basically warrants a follow up question which then leads into a conversation which everyone is trying to avoid.

When you know peer pressure is coming, lie, lie, lie. You don’t want to do something but your friends are going to try to make you do it. Leaving the area is usually the safest way to avoid doing it but lying to avoid doing something you don’t want to do is OK too. I sometimes will give the silent treatment but I feel like lying might be the better approach. I’m not sure I have any really specific examples but from time to time I might not want to do something that people want to do and I corner myself because I feel bad lying. In the future, I might just start lying because of this blog post.