“You never have to remember what you said,” my father told me. Handy advice. My dad had many neat sayings that were bite sized pieces of advice – some his own and some I’m sure from his parents. He also told me that when people end a sentence with “Honest!” they have just told you a lie. The other thing he warned me about – and I seem to keep forgetting – is that we tend to assume that others live by the same rules of conduct we do. In other words, if we don’t use deceit as a viable means to an end, then we don’t expect others to. And the giant one: if people will lie about the little things then they will definitely lie about the big things!
Why am I sharing this? Because I keep getting slapped upside the head by lies and deceit. Am I a magnet for this? Apparently so. Am I naive? Not quite so much. What am I doing about it? Well, a little bit at a time. (more…)