Take it.

I have never been someone easily bothered by the lies parents tell their children. I don't feel that sheltering is a good idea in the long term -- the more protected a child is, the more inclined to rebell they are likely to be as an adolescent -- but I don't have a problem with inventing stories. Stories, or lies, are my lifeblood, and I would much rather encounter both fact and fantasy than be kept from knowing the truth. (In my case, of course, the distinction between fact and fantasy tends to blur. And sheltering, come to think of it, is a topic I can discuss fairly easily.)

I find it more interesting, however, when parents lie to their offspring without realizing it. Sometimes they retain the lies they were spoon-fed from their own childhood, and these lies metamorphose to valuable pieces of wisdom that must be shared. I speak not of the Tooth Fairy, but rather of false ideas that have been ingrained into our subconcious, white lies that are passed on with each generation.

"You can do anything you want to."
"Everyone is good at something."
"Nothing is impossible."

Yet, upon brief examination, we discover that these are not as accurate as we would like to believe. "Nothing is impossible" cannot logically be true -- if nothing is impossible, then it is impossible that something should be impossible. How has a paradox become a parable? Why cannot we instead teach our children courage, courage to face both truth and lies without the support of comfortable illusions?

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Shadow-dweller becomes us both.