Recently, I had occasion for someone to indirectly accuse me of subterfuge - the Trinidad colloquialism used was 'you lash from behind'. This got me thinking of how I handled the whole situation - introspection is always worthwhile - and I know that I had no subterfuge in my mind.

I simply did what had to be done.

Subterfuge, in and of itself, requires something to be hidden. If this were a game of cards, I simply allowed the other player to play their hand while I played mine. They simply didn't expect that I had the winning hand... or that I knew how to play the game in the first place. Did I withhold that I knew how to play the game? No, I simply sat and played. That they expected me to be unable to play was a bit of a surprise for me, but then... wouldn't their playing of the game then been subterfuge?

No worse for wear, I reclaimed what was mine while their bluff was called. There is no subterfuge on my part... I hold subterfuge in disdain; I believe it below me. That I saw their bluff for what it was... that I saw through their subterfuge... that is my sin, I suppose.

I'm not a man of too many faces
The mask I wear is one...

- Sting

And that is a sin I can live with.