According to my mother, I am an expert at the art of being evasive. In thinking about this, I decided that being evasive is not always negative.

For instance, suppose someone asks you to go somewhere that you really don't want to go. You don't want to hurt his/her feelings but you have no intension of going anywhere with this person. So what do you do....evade the question of course. You can do this by asking him/her a question. The conversation would go something like this...He/she says, "Would you like to go to a movie with me sometime?" You reply, "Hey did you see Titanic? That was some movie. A little too long for my liking though. I decided I would never subject myself to that again."

Another "ploy" I have been known to use is the "pretence of not understanding". I don't like for people to try to drag me into saying something against or about another person. So I use this when I feel a trap being set. He/she says something like this." Have you seen Kelly lately? She looks really bad. I wonder what she's been up to?" You reply, "What did you say? I'm afraid I didn't hear you. I was thinking about Kelly and how much fun she can be." And of course, you are smiling all the while.

Seriously, I realize there are those who would say that honesty is always the best policy. But I'd rather be a little evasive and not hurt someone's feelings as to be totally honest and crush an ego. The world is full of cold hard truths and doesn't need me to add to them.

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