Briefly, for those who don't know, a few years ago "AdamMorgan" posted on the death of his wife and daughter in a car crash right before Christmas, garnering much in the way of sympathy and support around here. He then went on to post about his "new" life and subsequent dating. It was then discovered that he was making the whole thing up, and he was run out of town on a rail.

I was one who bought into it, and having a young daughter, it really hit home. While I always thought I was considerate of and grateful for what I had, that Christmas I think I was maybe a little more so, because I "knew" someone who had just lost it all.

When the ruse was exposed, I was pissed...I mean really furious. How dare he manipulate my feelings like that? I wanted Adam Morgan's head like everybody else. But with time came the realization that the lessons learned from the whole episode were genuine, even if the story was not. It didn't matter whether or not it was true, it made me appreciate what I had just a little bit more. It was a fable of sorts, with a bit of extra kick.

I mean, it's not like we're born with a limited amount of compassion and I "wasted" some of mine on him. It's really no skin off my nose if he was sitting at his keyboard, laughing at me because I fell for his lie and offered him some sympathy.

Since then, I've treated folks here differently. I try to take everyone at face value, even though I realize their real life personalities are probably at least a little different from their online personas. I stopped trying to discern when someone was being genuine and when they were role-playing. I stopped trying to figure out what the real-life person behind this or that poster was trying to do, stopped trying to "outsmart" them. Trying to deal with that man behind the curtain adds a whole other layer of complexity to posting here that I simply don't have time for.

I don't really know any of you from Adam (appropriate, eh?), so I try very hard take our interactions here at face value. Unless you've given me good reason to believe otherwise, I pretty much accept your posts as honest. But even dealing with dishonest personas helps me better understand myself and the world, and I've found that to be a very liberating idea.