don't deceive yourself - by Celine Nguyen - personal canon
personalcanon.com · 5,584 words · saved by 1 readers
on delusional fantasies and self-respect ✦ feat. Elsa Morante, Didion, Flaubert and Tolstoy
I’ve never been paranoid about other people lying to me. Most people, I’d like to think, mean well. They have an instinct for generosity. They aspire to be good, to be worthy of other people’s respect. The little white lies of interpersonal life—the friend who texts to cancel plans and says, Something came up at work, sorry! instead of revealing that she’d rather sleep early than meet me—seem inconsequential, essentially harmless. Lie to me if you’d like! I trust you to choose the lie that benefits both of us. What disturbs me, what keeps me up at night, is how I lie to myself.…
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