The Lie: A Memoir of Two Marriages, Catfishing & Coming Out

by William Dameron

“The Truth is rarely pure and never simple.” —Oscar Wilde

What we put out into the universe comes back to us, but who can predict the amount of time it takes to make its return, or what form it will assume?

when our supposed truths are unmasked for lies, What do we do with all of that pain and lost hope?

Was it possible to be an unhappy father and still raise a happy child, or did shame make my love poison?

But I know, the hardest things to prepare for are sometimes the things that we already know.

Without sadness, happiness cannot exist. On that day, Linda and Debra would cry for the Bill they could not rescue and for the one that they did.

It can be helpful to know and understand the motivation of the person who hurt you in order to forgive them, but it is not necessary, because forgiveness is a solitary act that requires only one participant.

Forgiveness is not given to help the one who hurt you, but to navigate through the pain in order to free yourself.

We are not the first generation of queer people who have found ourselves trapped in a straight marriage, but please God, let us be the last. In a world filled with hate and lies propagated by the Trump administration, living the truth is a form of resistance and persistence.

We are all of us an assimilation, a collection of bits and pieces of everything and everyone we love.