Their Masks

The Face with No Mask

Have you ever told a lie that you believed innocent enough to be negligible? Ever chosen to ignore truth because it was what wouldn't hurt your friend? Ever accepted to deceive yourself because you had decided you weren't emotionally stable to face the harsh truth?

Did you lie to yourself with the answers of the above questions right now?

It's hard to know really.

You don't often realize that you are lying to yourself. Most people will never refuse the warm confines of deceit to stand bare in the blizzard that is honesty. It's just not human nature to seek out anything that brings pain, even if it means a little lie here and there.

The problem with lying, just like many vices, is when it becomes both too easy and too common to do. It's a problem when you can comfortably say "I'm pulling into the driveway right now" to your best friend from the warmth of your bed, several miles away from the meeting point. Or when it becomes almost second nature to conjure up nonexistent plans to people you claim are your friends because you are in no mood to laugh with them.

But it's a necessary vice, some say. Fabricating evidence to send a known criminal to jail is tolerated. Lying about enjoying activities your significant other insists you do together is recommended to save marriages. Stretching the truth about the life of a famous actor or actress is considered work these days.

It is impossible to know what everyone thinks when they lie. There are too many technicalities to lying. Too many ways a fact that is true can be warped into a lie. Too many people are willing to do anything to make their lives and appearances a little bit better than it was before.

So let's focus on just four people. Explore their lives, beliefs, and principals to the very core of their existence. Strip them bare to their minimum, all the while taking heed as to how they handle the pressure.

Maybe then we'll finally get an answer.

Maybe that will get us a glimpse of what's behind all their masks.