Embellish or...

never let the truth get in the way of a good story. My late maternal grandfather was an epic, epic storyteller. By story, I don't mean lies, but stories from his childhood and his life. They were amazing but as I grew older and heard him retell them, sometimes details would change. Whether it was intentional or not, he was embellishing his stories. Embellished or not, they made for great yarns and memories that I cherish to this day.

We are probably all a bit guilty or embellishing the truth to make for a better story, and in some cases, the embellishing turns to outright lying. It's a slippery slope, I suppose.  It starts with the bold but laughable response of child standing in a puddle of spilled milk, saying "I didn't do it," when asked who spilled it. Then it's "the dog I ate my homework." And suddenly, you're Lindsay Lohan, saying it's an ear infection (ha!) that prevented you from working or you're Kim Kardashian saying, with a straight face mind you, "Oh no it's not about the money. I'm doing this for love." Or you are Lance Armstrong, proclaiming with all the righteous indignation (read here for a perspective on Lance and his copping indignation) in the world that you never doped. Never. Ever.

We are on the eve of the disgraced athlete's televised appearance before this century's Mother Confessor, Oprah. Someone recently Tweeted that you don't go on Oprah to confess, you go on Oprah to ask forgiveness (in another post we should probably delve into how insane that is) and Lance has calculated (as he has done with all things) that Mother Oprah may be his best shot at some hope of redemption. How sad this all is and I'm not talking about Oprah. How sad it is to see what a lie, albeit a huge one, has done. How many lives (paging Floyd Landis) have been destroyed by this maniacal dedication to deceit? How sad it is that about the only good thing to come of this, the Livestrong Foundation, will face declining donations and a cloud of suspicion as a result of the actions of its founder. My hope is that people who had donated to Livestrong in the past or had planned to will continue to do so and if they choose not to that they will choose another organization. Don't let Lance's carnival of lies impact your desire to donate to something good.

Lance will have to live with himself over this but outwardly, it appears he's been pretty cool with the situation for awhile. That's sad too. If only he'd just told the truth, it would have been so much easier. When God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor" made the Top 10. There's a reason for that.

Never let the truth get in the way of a good story - it's probably time to rethink that.