A Cautionary Tale

The news about Ryan Lochte and his fellow partying swimmers who claimed to have been robbed in Rio is trickling in and it’s not good news. Perhaps the timeline started something like this. The four men go out partying after they have finished competing- nothing wrong there. Needing to use a bathroom, they vandalized a gas station bathroom and paid for the damage – ok, not good, but they made restitution for their bad act.
They go back to the Olympic village and don’t say anything. But it seems like Ryan talked to his mother, and for whatever reason told her that they had been robbed and she called NBC. That’s when the the lying to the world started. Now these four athletes who had a chance to be role models, and perhaps make some money doing endorsements have ruined their reputations over a ridiculous lie.  
Everyone lies. Sometimes we do it so as not to hurt someone’s feelings — “No,you don’t look like you’ve gained any weight.” Other times we do it to make ourselves seems better than we are — “I two putted that last hole.” Sometimes we do it just because we were lazy — “What do you mean you didn’t get my RSVP, I left you a message.”
Maybe Ryan didn’t want to tell his Mama that he had spent all his money partying, paying for taxis and paying off the gas station for the damage he had done. Maybe he was calling her for money and the excuse he gave her was he lost all his money in a robbery. Seemed like a good idea at the time. He didn’t want his Mom to be mad at him. Wrong!
Telling one lie led to the next and the next and now he has an international incident on his hands, Brazil didn’t like being portrayed as a dangerous place, even if it is true and countries that don’t like America use this as an example as what is wrong with us.
The lesson here is that lying is probably going to get you in trouble, especially if you lie to the police. Lochte should have taken his chances with his mother and told her the truth. Moms may get mad, but they are your most forgiving advocate.
As I always remind Carter, Martha Stewart did not go to jail for insider trading, she went to jail for lying to the police about it. If you do something wrong, own up to because the lie you tell to cover it up is going to get you in a whole lot more trouble that the original bad act.