I once worked with a guy who did the opposite of this. He just randomly mentioned that he had a twin brother one day, which no-one believed given how long we had all known him. But he persisted by casually talking about him in regular conversation. Nothing overly noticeable, just enough to plant the idea in people’s mind that he did indeed have a twin brother. Around the same time he started growing his beard out and really made it his personality for several months to be the guy with a beard. It all came together one day, he finished his shift around lunch time and left like usual with his glorious beard. Unbeknownst all but a select few of us, he hadn’t actually left. He left the store and drove his car around the corner to the other car park then used the sink in a nearby public toilet to completely shave his beard off and changed his clothes. Then he just walked in through the front door, introduced himself as the name he had been using for his fake twin brother and asked if his brother was there. He always had a reputation as a joker, but I don’t think any of us truly believed anything he said after that. Not that he cared. It still cracked him up years later when folks were telling the tale to the newbies.
Only you can really answer that question, but here’s my take at least.
When we are young, the world feels magical and mysterious. We are convinced that there’s dragons living in the mountains, and kraken in the oceans. We are so sure that we spotted a fairy in the garden or a mermaid at the pool And then there’s the Easter Bunny and Santa Clause who leave an obvious trace. But as we get older, that magic seems to fade. We instead see the world for the boring corporate reality that it is. And yet there’s still a part of us that hopes. Hopes that Bigfoot is walking around out there somewhere. Hope that Nessy really is swimming around in some undiscovered cave network beneath Scotland. Hope that the fuzzy photo of a smudge really is an Alian spacecraft come to make our world feel magical again.
As the great Sir Terry Pratchet once wrote
“All right," said Susan. “I’m not stupid. You’re saying humans need… fantasies to make life bearable.”
REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.
“Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—”
YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.
“So we can believe the big ones?”
YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.