A Truthful Tale of Artful Lies

I was recently confronted by someone convinced they had caught me in the act of a blantant lie. Indeed they had, although, they had missed the purpose - It was a joke. See, the "lie" in question was me pretending to be drunk at around 10am to my cousin, whom I was on the phone to. It was part of a much longer-running joke regarding the drunken nature of university life.

Now, the person in question did not know this, and essentially thought I was lying for whatever reason. The thing is though, I do it frequently. Not usually anything big. Or even really untrue. It's just in my nature as a storyteller to embellish any story I might be telling in order to make it more engaging and amusing. I don't think that's a bad thing.

In fact, I think it's a bad thing when people tell truthful, boring stories. Nothing kills the mood at a gathering of any description than when someone tells a totally boring story that has the amusement value of a half-brick. My brother once came out with a rare pearl of tradies wisdom: "Never let the truth get in the way of a good story." I think it's fair enough.

I value truth and whatnot as much as the next person (assuming that the next person isn't Kevin Rudd or any of the "journalists" from Today Tonight), but I have to say, as someone who writes stories, and makes things up, I think taking a little creative license with a story is fine. Especially if it makes it more inclined to get a chuckle.

Blake out.