Dear LPG

I can’t help it; I have never really been interested in reading books, but the internet intrigues me, and I am forever finding new little facts  to hold my interest much like a magazine would have done before I discovered the internet fifteen years ago. 

Recently I read a post online which explained that we all lie nearly every day and even though, like so much of the information that you find on line it appeared to be focussed on people of working age, I don’t think much changes when you retire. 

Be honest, how many times do you tell someone to lie for you and say that you can’t get to the phone when you really could but want to avoid the person who is on the other end of it?  I have to admit to lying quite a lot last year to make sure a surprise birthday party I was organising remained a surprise.  

My mother is in her eighties and, like many others of her age, she regularly experiences quite a lot of back pain, which she cannot help but mention throughout the day, but for some reason, she plays down the problems when her GP asks her to explain the extent of it, and while she often mentions it to some friends it never comes up in conversation when she is talking with others.   I have to conclude that she can’t be telling the truth about how bad it is all the time even though I believe she is much more likely to be playing it down rather than exaggerating. 

According to what I have read we all lie a lot more often than we think, but why do we do it and  just how often are we guilty?

I found some interesting quizzes designed to help you measure just how guilty you are when it comes to colouring the truth and thought it would be good to share them with LPG readers, although I think that some of the questions will require us older people to cast our minds back a decade or two before we answer. 

PM. Bermondsey.

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