Lying

Here's the situation. I live in Asheville, NC 50 miles away from Spartanburg, SC where I work. Different state, different city, different sub-culture.

Occasionally, patients will ask where I live, or where I'm from or how long I've worked at the hospital. If I say Asheville, I then have to go into a long explanation about living in one city and working in another. And honestly, the drive isn't that bad, yes it takes an hour, sometimes I carpool, it's because my wife is in pharmacy school, and it's only for 1 year. But this has grown tiresome. So, I try to steer conversations away from myself and my situation. Sadly this doesn't always work.

One recent conversation left me chuckling, because when I left the room, I had the patient convinced that I had recently moved to Spartanburg and was still learning my way around. The problem is, I'm not so sure I ever lied. What do you think?

Patient: Do you know where the (something) is out on Pine St.?
Nathan: No, I'm not too familiar with that part of town.
Patient: Well, how long have you been here?
Nathan: Only about 9 months.
Patient: Is your wife working? Does she like it?
Nathan: She's completing here final year of pharmacy school.
Patient: What church to you go to?
Nathan: Well, we're usually in Asheville for the weekends. Our parents live there. We've been going to a church up there.
Patient: Oh, that's nice to have them close and get to go out of town on the weekends. So, how have you liked living in Spartanburg so far?

At this point, I'm so far into the illusion that I actually live in Spartanburg, I can't correct her now. But I can't recall ever answering with a straight forward lie. All her questions were legitimate, and all my answers were true statements.

So, I never intentionally misled her; however, I didn't correct her apparant assumptions either. Is that passive lying? Is there anything wrong with that? Help me out here.

I don't know, but either way, I giggled as I left the room thinking, "Heather's gonna hate having to move to Spartanburg now."


Contrasting quotes:

"You shall not give false testimony." Exodus 20: 16

"It is always the best policy to speak the truth, unless of course you are an exceptionally good liar." -Jerome K. Jerome