Chris Walsh (chris_walsh) wrote,
Chris Walsh
chris_walsh

I'd say the wrong thing if I lied

"Maybe it should hurt to lie."

Lot of us say that stupidity should be painful, and it often is, just usually not to those being stupid, so in that spirit I said that on Twitter recently. Seems a spiritual cousin to that idea.

Maybe it should.

I wrote that after I'd written that something that'd been difficult to write, I had written in an hour. I toyed with saying it had taken two hours -- and I felt the hints of a headache kind of knocking on the inside of my head. Cognitive dissonance. It could be proven that I hadn't taken two hours on that, and also I'd know it hadn't, so I wrote that it had taken an hour. And felt better. And thought the thought "Maybe it should hurt to lie."

And I was very aware of having said that when my phone next ringed and it turned out to be a solicitor asking for Christopher Walsh.

I said Christopher Walsh wasn't available.

I knew that by the standard I'd suggested not long before, I should feel some sort of hurt. I'd be a hypocrite not to expect that.

So...

What should be the level of hurt? How should it match up to the lie? Which lies would cause just a twinge of headache? Which would cause the sort of headaches Spike got when he tried eating people? Which would cause the it's-like-body-parts-are-going-inside-out level of pain? Or taking-your-bottom-lip-and-pulling-it-over-your-head pain? Which would cause something like hangnail levels of "ugh"? Sunburn levels of "ugh"? Bill-paying levels of "ugh"? Getting-slapped-by-an-anvil levels of "AAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH"? (How much watching of Looney Tunes have I done? A lot.)

Thinking about pain, it's
Chris
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