Everything is Perfect When You're a Liar

Let me start by telling you a funny story. After months of unemployment, I accepted a temporary position. This is great news and something that I am extremely grateful for as I was ready to go back to work within weeks of being laid off.  When I told one of my friends she suggested we celebrate. I agreed to meet her at the mall. Well, wouldn't you know she went to one mall and I went to another.  No lie. I got us a booth at the mall I was at and she got us a booth at the mall she was at. We spoke on the phone from fifteen miles apart.  True story.

After that funny mis-communication, I headed to the bookstore. Another fact about me is that I am mourning the slow death of bookstores. As I've mentioned previously, I accept all the conveniences of e-books, but there is nothing like walking into a store with hundreds of books.  Without a book to purchase in mind, I wandered aimlessly through the shelves. Sometimes I'd stop and check out a cover based on its art or title. Then I stumbled upon a book with a title that made me literally stop and stare at it.

Everything is Perfect When You're a Liar

This was something to contemplate. I have no idea what the book is about. I didn't even read the synopsis. The title gave me enough to think on. I had two immediate thoughts 1) I know people like that and 2) I resemble that.

I know people like that. It isn't that they are malicious liars but they lie all the time. They are chronic social media liars. One of my friends was described as "sunshine and rainbows and a perfect world" at a party one time and if you read her Facebook that is what you'd believe her world was. She has the "perfect" everything - husband, kids, car, house, pets, wardrobe, job, friends, hair, sink, shower, stove, fridge, mold in the shower. The list goes on forever. However, two minutes after posting a Facebook status about how wonderful life is, she is on the phone with me telling me how difficult her husband is, her kids colored on the wall, she hasn't showered in three days, and her car is officially an expensive lawn ornament.

Which is her reality?

I believe she is grateful for her husband, loves her kids, is thankful for the house and vehicles. She just takes her social media status to a whole new extreme. She's competing with the Joneses. She isn't competing with their life though she is competing with their virtual life. The projection that social media can give off. It is that image that crops out the busted appliances and growing credit card bills. It is the profile picture of a family that adores each other when really the kids have been bribed to sit close enough to get everyone in frame.

I'm not a fan of the chronic complainer either. The person who posts about how life is out to get them like  the 14th sequel to Scream. From their Facebooks you'd never believe they have money, you'd think they were minutes away from starving to death, sleep deprivation was 48 hours ago, and they've walked to school uphill both ways barefoot.

There has to be a balance. Somewhere you can accept life's challenges without complaining. You can also be a contender against life's challenges without losing face.

Everything is Perfect When You're a Liar part 2