Memoirs of a Rideshare Driver: White Lie Party
Episode 16 in a series of true rideshare stories
There are two of them, both college age, both girls, both wearing white t-shirts with handwritten text on them.
“We’re going to a white lie party!” one of them tells me excitedly.
“What’s a white lie party?” I ask.
“Do you know what a white lie is?”
I tell her I do.
“Well, so we’re all wearing white t-shirts with white lies written on them. The guy who is throwing the party is named Tom, so our shirts say ‘We hate Tom.’ But we don’t. He’s super nice.”
I suddenly wish I had asked her what a white lie is, because I don’t think we have the same definition. I’ve always thought of a white lie as being a lie you tell to avoid hurting someone’s feelings—something like “your haircut looks fine” or “dinner was delicious”, not “I hate you.” That’s pretty much the opposite of a white lie.
“So what do you do at a white lie party?” I ask.
“We made these shirts.”
“Right, but, then what? Like, do you play games? ‘Two Truths and a Lie’ or something?”
“Ooh! We should do that!” says one of the girls to the other.
I’m starting to feel like I’ve already put more thought into this party than anyone involved in the party has. Another thought occurs.
“‘Two Truths and a Lie’ would actually make a good theme for a party. You could assign everybody either a truth or a lie, and they could write it on their shirt like you’re doing, but half of the people at the party have truths and the other half have lies. It would be like an ice breaker. Somebody’s shirt says ‘My grandpa was an astronaut’ and you can go up to them and guess whether it’s true, and then they can guess yours, and maybe you end up in a conversation.”
“That would be an awesome party!” says one girl.
“We should do it!” says the other.
“But Tom might get mad that we stole his idea.”
“True.”
I am starting to agree with their shirts. Tom sucks.
They decide they will not hold a ‘Two Truths and a Lie’ party, even though it’s a good idea. Instead, I drop them off at a party where the only idea was “shirts with white lies on them” and they screwed it up by not understanding what a white lie is.
When they leave, I bet they tell Tom it was a great party. Now that would be a white lie.
Memoirs of a Rideshare Driver is a series that tells true stories of my 10,000+ trips as a rideshare driver. I will post them every Monday.