Some wise person once said that a lie can get half way around the world before the truth can get his pants on. This is not a blog about politicians, although it could be, in the last days of the election. This blog is not about the shysters would lie and cheat their way to the top. This blog is also not about grandiose, but mentally disturbed people, who tell lies about their abilities. One thing to remember is to never say that you are “fluent” in another language, when all you can do is to say “hello.” Once, I was tutoring a student in quilting when out of the blue, she told me that she was able to speak a long list of languages, one of them being Spanish. When I began speaking in Spanish, she drew a blank look and said that she “used to speak that one fluently.” Yes, and my pet pig is green.
Lies like that, meant to temporarily inflate one’s ego, don’t actually hurt anyone other than the liar himself/herself, it seems, but I have also learned that people who find it easy to tell any lie, also have no problem stealing, cheating, etc., in other words, living a life that is not even true to themselves.
Do you know the lies I despise the most? Falsehoods and fabrications about quilt history, when these are shared with a group, either online, in person, or in the media, including books. Lies do seem to “stick” more quickly, and often, no one challenges them because they come from the lips of an “expert.” Ha! That is a misnomer, in most cases.
Now, some people “mean well” when they blithely share their misinformation. In one instance, someone listed Kate Greenaway as still designing motifs in the 1930s, quite an achievement for someone who died in 1901. Of course, typos can come into play. Then again, we have a quilt that was reproduced, time and again, yet the “original” has never been seen, and its location is unknown (probably because it never existed in the first place?) – See my new book for more details.
Sometimes, information is misinterpreted, a common occurrence with us humans. We even misread each others’ intentions. The current political scene is a good example of that with the lady stating that she thinks Obama is not to be trusted because he is an Arab. Well, last I knew, an “Arab” was someone from Arabia who speaks Arabic. Even if he were, there are many law abiding, Arab-Americans, according to the media.
Of course, some remarks that are lies are intentionally made by people who want to try to gain the upper hand, by small minded toads, and by others who want to damage someone’s reputation. No matter what the reason is for lying, there is no sufficient justification. In the case of politics, the means do not justify the end.
I hope that in politics and in the rest of life, we can begin to concentrate on what is good about each other. The less attention given to the negatives, the better. I just hope that people who should know better, will begin to take extraordinary care when they impart information. After all, who would want to hear, “Liar, liar, pants on fire,” or worse yet, be caught with their pants down?
Patricia Cummings
