HANDOUT: Loss of Love Theme 6 A LIE

6  Loss of Love theme: A Lie

Write something about a lie.   It could be a lie you once told, a lie told to you.    Or you might discover a lie someone has been telling.

Why would someone tell a lie?

Is it to protect themselves?

To gain something?

To deceive someone into doing something?

Imagine someone you’ve always admired as a hero or heroine.  After almost a lifetime you discover that their heroism never happened.  They made it up, or it was someone else.  The medal in the little glass cabinet is a fake, or earned really by someone else who happened to have the same name.

Or the lie could be something about your long dead father or mother, or even you.

Maybe it’s something that’s always inspired you, or something that’s made you feel second rate.

They don’t know you’ve found it.  But that’s the reason you’ve invited them for a drink or to supper. 

Now you can confront them with it.  Why did they do it?  What’s their reaction?   Maybe yours is quite different from what you’d expected.

Or maybe you are put in a position where you have to tell someone something which will hurt them very much.   Someone about a relative.   Something about your feelings towards them.  Some way in which you’ve deceived them.  Maybe only you know about it.

You intend to break it to them, because that’s the honest thing to do to keep your relationship with them honest.  But as you talk you find it hard to do so.  Your problem is whether to summon up your determination and tell them the truth, or to save their feelings by telling a lie.

But then imagine that already know, and see how now you are the liar.