Re-lying on the Truth

I must admit, I'm not always a fan of the truth. Perhaps that makes me an unreliable narrator. Although I'm not one to lie that often, seeing as whenever someone confronts me about my actions I go "yes! No! A...B!" It always seems to end up with me screaming "WE DIDN'T HAVE ANY CHOCOLATE IN THE FIRST PLACE!"

Perhaps this explains my abrupt halt in acting. As Angela Chase from My So Called Life says to her best friend, "acting is like lying, and who's a better liar than you?"

Recently, I've been watching/reading things that rely heavily on the role lying has on our lives. After marathon-ing through The Riches (such a good show--but beware, there is anything but closure), I've seen the levels of lying. Sure, there's the black-and-white version, where the Malloy family is pretending to be a different set of people, but then you have neighbors who may be honest about their family name, but putting up a front for everything else. Nina--the Malloy's neighbor--pretends to be a good housewife who has the perfect husband, but we end up finding out *SPOILER ALERT* that she's a pot-smoking wife to a gay husband. Just because you're honest about who you are, doesn't mean you're forced to face the truth about what you are. These characters may put themselves at ease by having a reputable name and living in a reputable town, but just because they're in these boxes made of ticky tacky, doesn't mean that on the inside, they all look just the same.

Once you give yourself that label, the rest of your previous "truths" can spiral into an act. The Malloy family, once priding itself on being authentic travelers, go from "buffers," to lawyer-obsessed and uniform-wearing. As they become more and more convincing about their fake title, the family starts to believe that's who they're meant to be. Wayne goes from playing a lawyer, to becoming a lawyer.

I think the lesson we should all take away from this show is that if you see some dead people in a forest, you probably shouldn't pretend to be them. Oh, the important gems you learn from television.

But, we should also realize that while some means of organization is needed for society to function, those labels aren't everything. Humans tend to be drawn to what they view as the unattainable. So if you see yourself as a perfect housewife, that double "rebel" life may seem more desirable than if you saw yourself as a person who sometimes folds laundry, but someone who also makes mistakes and has a little fun.

Chances are, some labels you have for yourself aren't going to last through your whole life. This is especially pertinent to romantic relationships. We tend to get distraught when Billy-Bob-Joe tells us that he just isn't interested in us anymore and that we've grown apart...cue the tears and the "my whole life has been a lie!"

Well, sure. It's been a lie if you see yourself as only Billy-Bob-Joe's girlfriend. Or, it's a label that once was, and just isn't anymore.

Namaste.