The Masks That Persist

Why Do We Lie?

Why do we lie? Does it have something to do with the way we are born? Or maybe it is the way we are taught. Human deception is a classic topic for most rhetoric. People write songs, books, books, short stories, movies about it. But why does it have to be that way? We are supposed to be able to trust each other but instead we have to wonder who is lying. Even when people tell the truth, we simply don't believe it. That is because so many people are liars. People even lie to themselves. It may seem weird, cliche, or an overdone idea, but placing a mask onto your life doesn't hide pain from you. It is like a two way mirror, you can see out into the rest of the world and pretend that you are fine and yet, the truth is that the world fails to be able to see past the face being reflected back at them. The face they put on themselves as well. They pretend that they don't feel bad for being rejected by their dream college. They the person leaving their life after ten years of friendship doesn't hurt. They pretend that their childhood dreams mean nothing to them, because they are deemed buy others as unrealistic.

Is it possible to ever find the truth within people without it being tainted? Aren't lies just our way as humans to avoid pain? The pain of emotions, or rejection, of betrayal, of failure. When we tell so many lies we can never tell what is true. Lies surround us, but we ignore them. Afterall who would believe that everyone is just putting on masks when they think they are the only ones wearing a mask. None of us can be sure what is truth anymore. Which news stories are factual, which stories we are told have been exaggerated to outrageous extremities. Naivety is looked down upon and yet that is all we crave to be. Can it ever get better? Will we ever be able to discern the real from the false? The exaggerations from the reality?

I think it is possible. If we put aside political, social, religious affiliations and biases it can be done. We can realize that we are all just humans wearing masks. People can learn to trust each other without fear of being lied to. Maybe it is too idealistic to think this way. But I have faith that someday we can get there. With only so much time on this planet, I feel sad that people waste so much of that time fighting each other. No one is exempt. I have lied, my parents, teachers, siblings, idols, celebrities, religious leaders, politicians, everyone has at some point in their lives lying.

Maybe, just maybe, we can learn that lying only hides the truth for an indeterminate amount of time. Sometimes the truth will never come to fruition, maybe it will take years if the one asking the question the truth will be revealed in seconds. The truth has a tendency to fly around the room until it hits someone in the face and knocks them to the ground. At least I have to hope that will happen, sooner rather than later.

You see I was murdered, and the one that killed me is roaming free. They had been someone dear to me when I was alive. Someone I thought I could trust completely. Obviously, I was completely wrong about them. That is what hurts so bad about dying. Not the actual death itself, but the life afterward.

Everyone has unfinished business. Forgetting to grab the mail, an unfinished load of laundry, an unresolved fight between significant others, a meal left uneaten, a car left unlocked. The smallest things that people tend to say, "oh don't worry, it happens to everyone" count as unfinished business. Unfinished business is the reason why all ghosts exist, I never believed until I became one of them. The worst part is that it isn't as fun as people would lead you to believe. I can't make things move, I can't make strange noises, I can't do anything to scare my murderer. I can't move on to whatever is supposed to be the afterlife either. You see right before I died I had just made plans to go the movies with my friends, I never got to go. I never got to finish those plans, and I also lost thousands of pens, pencils, socks, just about anything. Those all count as unfinished business. I know it sucks, if I hadn't been killed when I had and been able to search and find some things and finish the plans, maybe I wouldn't be stuck here.