I have a confession to make….
Come in close now, I don’t want everyone to hear. Promise to keep it to yourself? Ok, here it goes…. Sometimes I entertain BS. You heard right. Sometimes I entertain bullsh!t.
I think I just heard a collective gasp from the people who know me best, because I’m pretty famous for doing just the opposite. Why in the world would I ever entertain BS when I’m known for not doing so? I’m so glad you asked.
- Sometimes I’m just bored, and it humors me.
- Sometimes I’m curious just how far the person will take it.
- Sometimes I’m curious to see what the person will do to get out of the hole they’re digging.
- Sometimes I want to see exactly just how stupid the person thinks I am.
- Sometimes I hold out hope that the person will come clean and prove to me that most people really are decent, honest human beings that sometimes just make bad decisions. Oddly enough, this has actually happened a time or two, which gives me a little hope for the human race.
- It usually gives me some pretty good fodder for my writing, especially in the way of character development.
- Sometimes it’s a combination of the above, and sometimes it’s ALL of the above.
I gotta hand it to some people though, once they go in, they really commit. For example, during my online dating adventures (part I and part II), I was approached by a man who was clearly married (or otherwise spoken for), and clearly in the music business, although I was supposed to be too stupid to know this. When asked what he did for a living, this fool told me that he was involved in the “buying and selling of experimental weapons,” and that he really couldn’t get into too much of the details. After my stomach stopped hurting from laughing so hard, I actually continued to correspond with this guy, just to see how far he’d go. When I told him I understood because I’d had some dealings with the CIA myself, obviously in jest (I don’t join in on or encourage the BS, I simply entertain it), he proceeded to blather on about having worked with people at the TBI (Tennessee Bureau of Investigation) and the federal government and some other BS. It’s amazing what lengths some people will go to, and to what end? What’s the point? This is the part I’ll never understand. And unless you’re dealing with a true pathological liar, they’re bound to start forgetting the lies they’ve told, so really, what is the end game? If you take nothing else away from this post, remember this: never try to figure out why people do what they do, you’ll only manage to give yourself a headache. Anyway, after a little more back and forth with this guy, he eventually picked up his toys and went home, having either finally run out of creativity, or his wife actually found out what he was doing. For the record, items 1, 2, and 4 were applicable in this situation.
Item number six really is true. I believe entertaining BS does have the ability to improve one’s writing skills. As a writer, if you want to create believable characters (and not thinly veiled versions of your friends and family), you have to be a good listener, perceptive, and observant of the world around you. In fact, I’ve been preparing to be a writer my entire life and didn’t even realize it. When I was in my teens, I loved going to the mall. But not for the same reasons most teenage girls liked going to the mall, like shopping, or meeting up with girlfriends and hanging out with boys. I loved going to the mall to people watch. I found it fascinating to observe body language, and to try to figure out what people were feeling or what they were talking about. Now a days my son will actually get in on the fun with me. Sometimes we’ll even make a game out of it and do the voices too, sort of like in the movie Date Night with Tina Fey and Steve Carrell. He’d probably kill me if he knew I was writing about this, but hey, it’s who we are. We’re just weird and funny like that. My daughter usually just smiles, shakes her head, and tells us how childish we are, but every now and again she’ll join in with us too. I believe the family that engages in silliness together….gets labeled as crazy together. 😀
I sense that some of you may think I’m wrong for what I’ve confessed here today but I disagree, and here’s why. It’s like that old saying, don’t dish it if you can’t take it, or don’t ask the question unless you’re prepared to hear the answer. If people didn’t try to BS me, there’d be no entertainment in it for me. And I don’t BS people (for entertainment purposes or otherwise), so I really don’t see how I can be accused of any wrong doing. If you happen to disagree, feel free to sound off in the comments section. I’m always open to other opinions, and I’m certainly up for a healthy “BS-free” debate. 🙂
Admitted Occasional Tolerator of BS,
Angela