WHY DO PEOPLE LIE?
What exactly do they get out of it?There are the popular lies...lying to get out something...from "no...they gave me that weed" to "I would NEVER mess around on you".
These lies are engineered to avoid consequence...to dodge a bullet. In a sense...a very base sense...I can understand these kind of lies.You are simply trying to cover your ass...and who hasn't done this to one degree or another at some point in thier lives.
I'm no saint...to be sure,but I can't remember the last time I told a lie...I have lied in my past and learned that doing so leads to much more bullshit than you would've endured telling the truth...some people are good liars and some bad...I was horrible at it and learned early on that it was a life strategy that wouldn't work for me.(I credit my parents for this...even though I was well into my adult years before I finally figured it out...thanks mom and dad).
Now...on to the lie in question....
Where I work is filled with diversity...but not in the normal way you would define it.Our color is white predominantly,more male than female.What sets us apart is appearance.Most of us have tattoos...lot's of them.They are not hidden from view..I am sleeved with tats on my hands and knuckles for the world to see...without shame...I am colored by choice.
Many of us have very short hair.This combination leads people to some conclusions that are not true...redneck...extremist...racist.
Redneck?...yeah...extremist?...OK...But racist???No... I don't think so.
We service a large jewish community center and one of our employees (heavily tattooed and with a burr hair cut) did a job or two at the center.His supervisor (also heavily tattooed and short haired,he can hide his ink though) told him that someone from the center had called and requested that they not send "the anti-semite looking man" out again because he had offended some members by his appearance.
This "anti-semite" would give you the shirt off his back...kind,funny,helpful,but unfortunately the owner of a crew cut and tattoos in plain view (one a dedication to his mother and his home state...no swastikas...no 8's...no prison bullshit).Not a nazi skinhead punk by any stretch of the imagination.When he heard this he reacted with anger...but by the time he got home he realized his feelings were hurt...he wasn't mad...he was hurt because he thought of himself as a "good person".
I was sharing this with the owner of the company over a beer tonight and the general manager joined us and informed us it was almost,probably,certainly a lie and the reality was they didn't want him back because of his unfamiliarity with the equipment...his supervisor had simply made it up.When pressed for details,his supervisor couldn't remember who from the center had lodged the complaint and changed the subject.
A lie...for what reason?To hurt someone's feelings?To cast aspersions indirectly?Trying to be funny?Who the fuck knows...All I know is this:It hurt that man's feelings and made him believe people thought ill of him because of the way he looks...It wound me up enough to write about it...my original intent was to blast the members of that jewish community center for engaging in the same kind of blind prejudice that killed millions of jews so long ago....
but with the news that this revelation was most probably a lie, I lost my wind...but not my memory.
When I was in the field I had a customer who insisted that you call before you came into her yard...The same supervisor told me it was because she had been raped by a service person in the past.I carried on with this in mind for 6 months only to find out he was lying...he thought it was funny when I finally found out.
Is he lying?...probably so,but we'll never know for sure.
Do I trust him?
Absolutely not.
The price one pays...
"I'm a truth addict...aw shit I gotta a head rush"(Rage against the machine)