May 07th, 2020

Have you ever heard of this game?  I had not.  And anyway that's not exactly the way we played it.  Just almost.  We did it backwards.  Ours was "Two Lies and One Truth" but I couldn't find an "image" for it.  Sorry.

When I say "We" played it, I mean us Museum folks.  And by "Played It" I mean virtually.  We played it via email since our party was cancelled we could not do such things live and in person.

When I was told about the game initially I groaned (on the inside) because, as I've already stated here, I am not a fan of most games.  Especially party games. And it was intended to be exactly that, a party game. Bah.

That brings to mind things like little kids whacking each other with a plastic bat under the guise of trying to beak open a pinata.  Or those horrific Tupperware party games with women dressied up and desperately trying to balance paper places on their laps, plastic cups in their hands all while participating in "How Well Do You Know Your Host?" with a fakeyfake smile on their faces the entire time.  By the way, usually the correct answer to the question is, not very well at all.  Or even worse, one of those cut-throat card games where people get very very ANGRY with you if you do not "bid" correctly. Bid?  Am I playing a card game or attending an auction?  

But this game was a different breed of cat and involved no violence whatsoever (thank goodness!). This game was more of a thinker than a stinker.  

If you are unfamiliar with the concept (as I was) the idea is that everyone participating comes up with two plausible and at least marginally interesting lies about yourself and one truth.  We wrote these lines down and turned them into the boss.  At the party (in our case the email version of it) everyone is presented with these lines and is asked to guess which of the three is the truth.

Sounds simple, right?

Actually I found it much harder than I ever would have guessed.  (and I wasn't the only one).  First of all, I find it very difficult to lie.  I'm just not any good at it.  And in fact, I struggled with it so much that when the boss asked if my lines were ready I said, "I got nothin'"  As we talked about it she suggested that I use someone else's truth as my lie.  For example, I could say something that was true about Tim's life, like for example that he was a gymnast.  I wasn't but he was.  So while it's true for him, it is a bald faced lie about me.  Ok cool. That works.  

I chose two things about other family members that were true about them, but not about me as my lies. Done.  Cool.

Now I have to come up with a truth.  It was to be unexpected. (and therefore hard to guess).  It had to be true.  Ok so far.  And it had to be at least marginally interesting.  Well dang.  That's  where I got hung up.  

I sat there at my desk, pen and paper in hand, unmoving for the longest time, mentally reviewing my life.  Remember, I'm the person who is the farthest thing from an adrenaline junkie you will ever find. So there is no hurtling down ski slopes or driving cars at high rates of speed or even sitting front and center on a rollercoaster in my past. (nor my present or my future for that matter)  Nopenopenope. None of that.  And I'm the person who really does not enjoy being the center of attention. So there are no spotlight grabbing highlights in my life either. I'm more the person hiding behind the potted palm at the ball praying that no one will find me or worse, engage me in conversation.

Most of my life has been extraordinarily ordinary.  (and frankly I like it that way).  I'm probably the most average person you will ever meet in your life.  Average height, average intelligence, average ability, averagely average.  Maybe that is my unique ability, being the most ordinary?

It took me a really long time but I finally came up with the line for my one truth.    It was brief.  It was truthful. And most importantly, it was finally finished.  So I turned them all in.

Eventually, again via e-mail, we all selected our best guesses from everyone's lists of Two Lies and One Truth.   Done.  Whew!  What a relief.  

Some weeks later, the results had all been turned in and tabulated.

As it turns out, to my great surprise, I am a far better liar than I certainly ever guessed. Not one single person guessed my truths and lies correctly.  Wow!   How on earth did that happen?  I know for a fact that I an incapable of fibbing in person.  My face is just too revealing.  But perhaps, on paper, it's an entirely different story.  Very Interesting as Arte Johnson used to say.  

I have learned something new and at least a little bit interesting about myself with this game.  But please do not worry.  I promise to use this new found ability for good and not evil.