liar, liar.

“I always say the truth is best even when we find it unpleasant. Any rat in a sewer can lie. It’s how rats are. It’s what makes them rats. But a human doesn’t run and hide in dark places, because he’s something more. Lying is the most personal act of cowardice there is.”
― Nancy Farmer, The House of the Scorpion

I think I can speak for everyone when I say that we’ve all got a couple rats in our friendly little circles. Sometimes we even try to justify their nasty habit by saying that feelings were spared in the process. We try to rationalize why people lie, why do they fake themselves to be somebody else? I used to lie at a point and I was terrible at it, not because I wasn’t believable, but because I couldn’t keep track of all the lies I was telling. This went on for some time until I realized that I was completely screwing up any good relationships I had by doing this. I was destroying the foundation of something I really cared about. Nobody was helping me destroy it either, I was doing it all on my own.

Lies aren’t just verbal, they are physical too. Of course I see the point in why girls wear make up and all it’s glory, but what about when it becomes a mask. What happens when you love what you see the mirror, and then you wipe off the makeup and the reality sits in that the face you saw in the mirror isn’t actually you.

I can’t seem to understand how lying can give someone satisfaction. I believe lying does more damage to the liar rather than the person being lied to. Which I believe to be the most harmful consequence. If you constantly lie about yourself, about your feelings, you slowly start to forget who you actually are. If you wear all that make up everyday, no wonder it’s a shock when you take it off and you don’t recognize the girl in the mirror.

Even rats wear makeup, they even wear business suits too. Sometimes they wear baseball caps, and glasses. Looks can be so very deceiving.

Point is, one day the rat is going to have to tell people he’s a rat, I’m sure people have an idea but it’s better to admit and grow than to just live unhappy forever. I know that lying does no good, we have to remember for every action there is a reaction, and those reactions never turn out they way we hope they will.

Liars only lie so they don’t have to deal with who they really are. It’s sad because maybe they aren’t so bad, maybe what they are so scared to share might actually do them some good. Maybe their actual face is prettier than their mask, but they never gave anyone a chance to see it? I wish liars would give themselves a chance to be real to who they are, to embrace themselves, even a rat can learn to love himself. Maybe the rat can one day just come out and say “hey everybody, i’m a rat!” and maybe people will get scared and run, but maybe someone else in the corner will take off his body suit and go “hey! i’m a rat too!” Then all the other rats who couldn’t bare to tell the truth might just see how harmless it really is. Then the rats will realize they don’t have to lie to be happy, all they have to do is be true.

If you choose to tell the truth then you don’t need to remember anything, you can just be yourself, in the most literal way possible.

To be or not to be, that is the question.