I would like to think of myself as a very honest man. I don't cheat on my significant other, I do my taxes every year, I give back one of the ten dollar bills stuck to the other, and I don't give my iClicker to my friend when I don't go to my psychology class. I do, however, have one thing I like to do. This little thing is something that may seem to you a childish, stupid thing that maybe makes me a sick person.
I guess I'll just tell you a story before I get into my reasoning:
A few months ago, I was at Wal-Mart™ with my buddy, Kyle, on a conquest to buy groceries. On my shopping list was a new pack of boxers and a stick of deodorant. Kyle, on the other hand, needed some fruit and a few miscellaneous food items, so we went our separate ways and had a set a rally point at register 5 for fifteen minutes. I went on my way, grabbed my stick of Old Spice™, and started heading towards the packs of boxers. As I was walking I had that uncomfortable sense that the people walking towards me were looking at me. Let me take a moment and see if you can relate to this, as I think you have. Have you ever been walking and had someone wave to "you" but it was actually to the person behind you? Yeah, this was sort-of the same situation. These people were walking and staring at me as if they knew me. As they got closer, the woman exclaimed, "Mr. Coleman!!!" I stared in a stunned way, and for reasons I cannot explain, I replied, "Hey...have we met?" As they got to me, I saw they were talking to an older gent behind me. I turned to him and said, "Don't tell me your last name is Coleman too!" He replied that it was and I proceeded to act as if it were the damnedest of coincidences that we shared the last name. I introduced myself as David Coleman and he introduced himself as Rick Coleman. We had a laugh at the seemingly fantastic small world we lived in, I shook his hand and carried on.
I know what you are saying to yourself: "WHY?!" I can only reply with, "Why not?". It was an awkward situation that I turned into a dinner conversation for both parties. I can't explain why I thought of this, or why I even acted on it, but the fact of the matter is that I stood there and made up an entire story about myself to avoid an inevitable awkward series of events.
A similar situation happened just a few weeks ago. Kyle and I were back at Wal-Mart™ to get a bed sheet and a package of screws. We got home and realized we got the wrong size screws and "fitted bed sheets" instead of the plain kind. So, we went back to Wal-Mart™ and got a full refund of $11.78. We walked back to the familiar aisles and got the same exact two things, just different size screws and the right sheets. As we were walking up to the cashier, we knew very well the price was going to be the same and Kyle challenged me to have some fun with the situation. When we got to the register and the nice lady was ringing our items through the scanner, I said, "Hmmm....If my math is correct, I think with tax it will come to...ummm.... yeah I'm confident....$11.78". As it turned out, that was exactly the price and the cashier was very stunned by our seemingly genius math skills. She asked how we knew that and I replied, nonchalantly, "We're both math majors". She then went on to say how she wished she could do things of the sort and we went on our way, sharing a cornucopia of laughs on our way to my old man car.
Again, I could have said nothing, gave her the exact change and carried on but I didn't. I took the fun route and had a good laugh about it. I guess what I'm trying to say is, lying is bad. No doubt about it. When you're put in a situation in your life where you need to tell the truth, or you are telling someone you care about something, you should not ever play this game; however, I feel like little things you do throughout your life to give yourself, and others, a little laugh is harmless. Think about it, neither one of these scenarios that I described caused any harm at all to any parties involved. Life is about being responsible, making your time on Earth worthwhile, and most of all, having fun along the way.
Good day, readers. Have a great Saturday. I know I will.
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