alphatrope

Dusted off.

I was talking to Houdini again.

He said:

"I've spent a good deal of my life deceiving people. Through action, distraction, and misdirection, I get them to see what I want them to see. More importantly, to see what they want to see, for when coming to my show, we enter into a contract of deception. I have given them the promise of magic through deception, all the while looking for the real magic myself. For were we to discover true magic, we could lay better odds that heaven exists. But I found no magic. No sign of heaven. I found only the will to bend other's perception of both events and myself. It was a deception agreed upon. The lie that bewildered and didn't really matter."

I said:

"So, Harry, what are you trying to distract me from right now? What magic are you seeking to work here? I will not be a willing participant in deception. I'm bewildered by people who lie and think it doesn't really matter."

He said:

"What did I tell you last time? Pay attention where others do not..."

I said:

"Oh, I do, and you have no idea how much I really know. I know, the more you deceive others, the more you end up deceiving yourself."

He said:

"We are all nothing but a collection of self-deceipts. Lies we tell ourselves to shape our image away from what we really are."

I said:

"The only lie I tell myself is that I don't need anyone."

He said:

"Or perhaps that's the only lie you'll admit to yourself. The lies we tell ourselves are the least apparent."

I said:

"Fucker."