Truth and Lies…

I watched “The Inven­tion of Lying” the other night. Despite the trite descrip­tions of “the man in the sky” and the obvi­ous Moses-mocking with pizza boxes in either hand, the movie prompted some inter­est­ing thoughts on the nar­ra­tives humans tell our­selves and the role that those nar­ra­tives play.

The main char­ac­ter, Mark, lives in an alter­nate real­ity where peo­ple can only speak the truth in full, com­plete with embar­rass­ing an d hurt­ful details. One day, he dis­cov­ers that he can speak some­thing that “is not” while at the bank. He starts out by using this new abil­ity for his ben­e­fit, but soon real­izes that some­times speak­ing what is not can bring hope, hap­pi­ness, and encour­age­ment to oth­ers, includ­ing telling his sui­ci­dal neigh­bour that “every­thing is going to be alright.”

In his book “Help­ing,” Edgar H. Schein describes the cul­tural norms and social lan­guage we fol­low in help­ing one another, includ­ing sto­ries, roles, and nar­ra­tives as depicted in the film. In fact, he uses the term “the­atre” as a metaphor for the pat­terns of human inter­ac­tion that we depend upon to keep func­tion­ing socially. Mark’s use of these nar­ra­tives even in his world that usu­ally doesn’t fol­low them pushes him up in social sta­tus and admi­ra­tion of oth­ers. Aware­ness of these nar­ra­tives and their emo­tional impact can empower us to help and be helped and to avoid caus­ing hurt through our help­ing attempts.

I’m reminded of the pas­sage in Eph­esians describ­ing unity in the body of Christ, and the growth of fol­low­ers of Christ, “speak­ing the truth in love” along the way. This requires an inves­ti­ga­tion of the nar­ra­tives we use and to what extent they con­sti­tute “truth” while at the same time “in love.” Words of encour­age­ment, affir­ma­tion, and hope do not nec­es­sar­ily stem from what “is not” but from the truth framed in Christ-like love for others.

By the end of the film, Mark real­izes that lying holds no appeal when with some­one he loves. Instead, he learns to look for the affirm­ing truths in oth­ers and to speak those in place of truths that hurt. Not bad for a sim­ple comedy.