Lying: A Short Story

Along with many young children, I too fell into the belief of the jolly-filled, plump man with rosy red cheeks and a beard as white as snow. I would wake up earlier than six in the morning, bouncing off the walls and pestering my parents to get them up (keep in mind, at age this age, I didn’t even drink coffee, so the fact that I was able to do this amazes me). They would drag themselves out of bed, and my sister and I would sit right next to the Christmas tree waiting to open the gifts from the person we believed in with all our hearts: Santa Claus. Watching home videos, anyone can see the joy radiating from my sister and I’s faces as we opened the special gifts that magically appeared under the tree. As the years passed, there came a point …show more content…
In fact, we live in a world where it is not only common, but also encouraged to tell lies. It has become a part of our society to tell people they don’t look fat in their outfit (when they do) or to say that we’re doing good (when we aren’t). There are typically four categories into which different types of lies can be separated into: "to protect the feelings of another, for self-protection to avoid punishment, to the self or self-deception, and to hurt others” (Lewis). Some types of lies are more commonly accepted. For example, lying to protect someone else’s feelings is accepted, whereas lying to hurt the people around you is frowned upon. Surviving in our society without conforming to telling lies is nearly impossible. Lying, in any of its various forms, is inevitable in our society, and it has become something we not only learn to expect but also choose to participate …show more content…
During a day where I kept track of my own lies, I only told a handful of lies, but almost all of them would fall under this category. One instance, for example, was that one of my friends asked me if a photo they edited looked good or not. I said that the picture looked good the way it was, but I wasn’t telling the whole truth. She could have cropped the photo a little more to make it better. In the past, however, I’ve noticed she gets easily hurt when people criticize her work. I didn’t want her to be mad at me, so I just opted to say that I thought the photo looked fine the way it was. Once again, later that same day, I was still with this friend. We had plans to go to an event outside. The weather was supposed to be cold that night, and I had even put on my winter jacket and brought along a hat and gloves. My friend was dressed in a long sleeve shirt and jeans. She asked me if she looked okay. I knew she would get slightly defensive if I told her that I thought no because she was going to get cold, so I twisted the truth. I told her that she looked good, but she might want wear a vest and a cute scarf to keep her warm. In a way, I lied to her because I wasn’t telling her exactly what I was thinking; however, I know her and how she responds, and because of this, I modified my response to make the truth sound politer. In both of these examples, I only twisted my thoughts because I