BABYING THE WAY

There are times when I wish I was a better liar. That might seem like a strange thing to say, but the problem is I can manage to seduce people with my words, but sometimes they will change their minds. It is like they think about my con and then realize it isn’t true.

On the occasions where I do succeed in convincing some sucker that I’m telling him the truth, when I’m not, I then often have to massage the situation to keep the con working. That amounts to holding the person’s hand in babying them so they won’t panic too much.

What I miss at times in the process is appreciating when I’m dealing with somebody who is way too insecure and in need of attention. I tell you there is nothing more aggravating than having to con a person who then you have to spend too much time stroking so they don’t leave and find somebody else to abuse them.

Now if I fail to notice that until after they have bought into my con job it really becomes a major pain. I mean I can end up with them calling like ten times a day to talk about absolutely nothing important.

Well, at least to me it isn’t important. I ask you should I really have need of hearing about why they took their dog to the vet or the strain they went through to find their kid the right costume for a school play?

In such situations the challenge becomes one of keeping my sanity and not letting the stress and frustration drive me crazy. It is finding that balance between listening and resisting the urge to strangle them.

Of course the other challenge is not allowing any of it to cause my blood pressure to get out of whack. I want greed to work, but I also want a steady case of mellow to fill my life.

That also gets involved because it means figuring a way to deal with guilt. Which is a different problem than the issue of anxiety and stress.

Guilt comes in two forms in such situations. There is the guilt from knowing you are a lying weasel and devote scum-bag and then there is the guilt arising from knowing the victims you produce from your greed.

The first kind of guilt is a matter of not looking in the mirror and indulging oneself enough as a distraction. The second kind involves making sure you don’t get involved with learning too many personal details about the individual life. Even for a creep like me if I have to find out he has a bunch of kids at home it can be tough to keep up the desired to steal from him. So I have to baby the way of greed and at the same time learn to not allow myself in a position where the facts might cause my heart to emotionally bleed. Nice rhyme, good advice for the con man.