Deal-Breaker

"Have you ever been in a fight with a liar? I mean a real liar--not white lies. I'm talking about real lying. You have to walk away from them. You can't win with liars."

-Fran Kessler

I read this article about Fran Kessler, the special assistant to the editor in chief at Esquire. This quote made me think of my most hated trait of all time, lying. I try to be as candid and forthright as possible and I appreciate it when others do the same.

In early high school, I dated a boy named Phil. I hardly knew Phil when I started dating him (no surprises there), and about 2 days into the relationship I realized that he was a liar. Now and then you run in to a boy who tells white lies to impress you, but not Phil. Phil fabricated anything and everything whether it was of consequence or not. I've never fallen out of an infatuation so quickly. As fast as you can say "Oh, hell no!", I had dumped a bewildered Phil.

Avoiding The Liars proves to be easier when you are younger and more in charge of who you associate with. Maybe you have a couple in your family, but if your friend or boyfriend turns out to be a liar, you just get rid of them. It gets trickier as you get older. You get married and inherit some more liars from a family less endearing than your own. A sibling or a friend might marry a liar. Ka-POW! Now you've got an abundance of The Liars in your social circle. Learning to deal with The Liars is something I am still figuring out, because I've avoided them like they've got buboes (not to be confused with boobies, which would make me flock to them). So I don't really know what to do with them. In the beginning I used to call them on all their lies, but it just doesn't work because they just say something off-the-wall, or start babbling nonsense as fast as the can, or start back-flipping over the hills and into the sunset quackling like Daffy Duck. Everyone else is accustomed to them lying so they just smile and act like this is all normal. It's the weirdest thing I've ever seen.

I have found that Ms. Kessler's advice sure does ring true. The Liars are just bat shit insane. My new method to deal with The Liars is to blink and say "Oh." this seems to be the fastest way to make them stop talking.

How do you deal with The Liars?