Tuesday, March 9, 2010

The Lies People Tell

All of us have told a lie. Whether we weren’t completely honest about how our better half’s ass looked in that tight jeans, insincerely complimented a best friend on their hideous new hairstyle; we all know lies comes in all shapes and sizes. For some telling a lie is as effortless as braking wind in public, however as all farts go the fowl odour soon will permeate the air around them and for some reason this inconsiderate social aromatic gesture is always blamed on someone else. We have all told a lie and most of us have been lied to but when does a little white lie turn into something with serious consequences?
I have read somewhere that children are born honest and only learn to fib later in life. My first recollection of telling a lie was roughly around the age of four. You see my sister and I didn’t like each other much during our early years and frequently got into terrible fights. She being older than I was she had both the tactical and strategic advantage both in size and experience. On this particular day she was practicing on the piano and I wanted to play with her. After reaching her zenith of frustration she responded in the only way she thought would get through to me – violence! She scratched me across my cheek. As blood started trickling from the four straight lines on my face her initial satisfaction turned into panic: Our mom was on her way home and she would be in trouble, being the astute strategist she was she took the only recourse she could see fit- blackmail.
My sister told me if I tell my mom what had happened she would tell on me. Being four years old I didn’t really have that many bodies buried in the back yard but honestly believed that my sister had some serious dirt on me that I may have forgotten about. So when my mom walked into the house I tried to avoid her covering my gashing wound with a bathroom towel not realizing this act of concealment would draw attention. My mom saw the towel and asked me to remove it. At this point I saw my sister’s blond pony tails hastily disappearing out of the front door. My mom asked what happened and like a fart I blamed the dog. Knowing our tumultuous history my sister was called and with a frightened caution she returned to the house and we were both forced to spill the beans. Consequently, both of us were punished - I for lying and my sister for attempted homicide, she did however receive clemency for the blackmail.
Some lies are not as innocent and the deception malicious. During the last couple of weeks my husband and I learned this the hard way. We moved out of our old apartment into a new property. As the old place was on the market to be sold and not having received any offers from perspective buyers yet we decided to rent it out. Neither one of us wanted to deal with the administrative side of leasing out the property so we enlisted to services of a real estate agency. A week after we moved out I received a phone call from a very enthusiastic agent informing us she had found us the perfect tenants. The only catch was they wanted to move in the very next day. Naturally, we being cautious she was bombarded with questions and she addressed most of our concerns. It all sounded too good to be true, but being optimistic we decided to agree and the new tenants would moved in.
The next day hubby went to sign the lease agreement and briefly met (or rather saw) the tenants. “They looked like white trash” was hubby’s exact words that evening. . Three weeks later I receive a message on Facebook from a friend asking if we evicted our tenants as they had moved out. Shocked, and after I threw up a little in my mouth, I phoned the estate agent who confirmed this unwelcome surprise trying to convince me that my husband had given permission for the lease agreement to be terminated. Knowing this to be untrue, unless I was caught up in some parallel dimension, a frantic phone call to my husband exposed the agent’s lie. He was at the hairdresser at the time and threw a hissy fit the likes our hairdresser and friend had never seen before and I was sure he was gobsmacked. We were both enraged and these two queens was gearing up for a full on bitch fight!
Complaints were laid at the Agency’s head office and after days passed of receiving no satisfactory response, I went to the Agency to fetch the apartment’s keys. There I found myself entrapped by the agent and her supervisor who were waiting for me. A heated discussion ensued and after being slandered by her and the supervisor I was livid. However, this would not be my only ordeal for the day. I left to inspect the aftermath that was left of our once beautiful apartment and was disturbed by what I found. The apartment was in a state of disarray! Our tenants were indeed white trash and now I needed to clean up after them. It was disgusting and on completion of this dreadful task I felt like I needed an antiseptic bath! No queer should ever have to clean up shit (literally) after other people – the experience left me utterly traumatized!
On further investigation it was discovered that the agent intentionally deceived us. We were blatantly lied to as neither the tenants nor the agent had any intention of honouring our lease agreement. You see they were friends and the tenants urgently needed a place to spread their germs and filth for a month, a little technical piece of information that was purposefully omitted. This is not where the deception stopped but as we decided to sue the agent and the real estate agency she works for further details may become Sub Judice and compromise the future success of our case. In this instance the lies we were told proofed to have serious consequences for us but now especially for the agent and her employer.
Yes we all tell lies and we all have been lied to. Sometimes the little white lie is to spare someone’s feelings, to keep the peace or just done to stay out of trouble with your parents. However, we don’t stay children forever and we grow up. In the big grown up world we all know the difference between right and wrong and lies no matter how innocent (even to help a friend) could have serious consequences.

Till next time.

The Importance of Truth

5 comments:

Sabreena said...

That sucks (and not in the pleasurable way)! You'd think the tenants would have cared enough about their friend not to tear your place up. I have lied but my husband and I were discussing how one lie almost always leads to more (we often lie to get out of social engagements). Lies become a vicious cycle. The one wierd thing I am concious of when lying to get out of going somewhere is not using my kids. I never say they are sick if they're not or that something happened to them. I worry that Karma is a bitch and if I speak it then it will be.

Bitter Bitches said...

Sabreena, one thing I have learned from this experience is that not all people care about the consequences of their actions. For the most part some people believe they will get away with their deception. What you say about Karma being a bitch is so true. We all tell the odd lie, but some of us (like you indicated never using your kids) do have a conscious about it.

Shades of Gay said...

I'm sorry you had this experience. I firmly believe that some people are not able to see beyond their immediate needs, or are too afraid of reality to deal with it. When I was teaching, I experienced incredible hatred because I dared believe the children I was teaching were capable of learning. The parents, administrator, and some other teachers all denied that a particular child could learn and somehow I was "evil" and "dangerous" because I thought the child deserved better than being babysat all day.

Thank G-d that the parents never pursued legal action. The consequences of their lies could have been very severe for me indeed.

Bitter Bitches said...

Shades of Gay, some people are also to narrow minded to see past their own self made reality. I can't believe that you were branded as "Dangerous" & "Evil" for seeing the potential of a child being able to learn. I hope that child developed and reached his/her potential regardless of the parents' lies.

yusuf said...

This is a funny video that I met, everyone was curious at first and more interested in the end, but when the very end is definitely the view will be smiling

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