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Learning How to Lie
When my middle child was about 5 years old, I found his name awkwardly scratched into the surface of my mahogany storage chest. “M-A-T-T”. Right there for all the world to see.
When I confronted the little culprit, he was silent. After a moment, he raised his tear-filled eyes to me and said, “Mommy, I’m trying to tell a lie, but I can’t think of anything.”
I was so touched by his innocence that I let him off the hook.
Aw, so sweet. He didn’t know how to lie.
Yesterday I watched the testimony of the four police officers in the January 6th Congressional hearing. Powerful, moving, raw and honest testimony from four men whose lives were changed forever by the violence of that day.
And I watched the reactions of powerful Republican leaders after the testimony was over. I heard Jim Jordan trying to spin the story so that the attack was somehow Nancy Pelosi’s fault. Mitch McConnell wasn’t listening to the testimony because he was “too busy”. The talking heads on Fox News were insisting that the deadly attack on our Capitol was mostly a peaceful protest.
So I find myself thinking about my sweet little boy and about these powerful adults.
How did they learn how to lie so well?
