There is something, in the back of my mind, like a sliver stuck there, that keeps bugging me, and I’ve had trouble trying to figure out what it is. I’ve had it for years, and I suspect that you’ve had something like this, as well. Just recently, I started to realize what it is. When I was younger, it was something I felt good about… made me feel important. As I have gotten older… well, not so much. I know you know what I am talking about when you ‘feel’ something is ‘wrong’ or ‘off’, but you can’t put your finger on it… but none-the-less you know it is there…
I watch the part of my little world that revolves around me, and notice something… we are possessed.. invested… trained… indoctrinated with being ‘right’, or ‘pursuing truth so we are right’. For some reason, that gives us ‘rest’ when we ‘know’ (or think we know) that we are in the right, or that we have the ‘truth’. We all routinely depend on the ‘truth’ related to the laws of physics, to stay alive (cars, motorcycles, airplanes etc), but ‘having’ or ‘knowing’ the “Truth” gets a TON of air time. Why is that?
There are some truths that are universal, and some that are regional. What is true here in the U.S. might not be the case in another country.
But truth ‘should’ be something that isn’t personal… or should it? I watch DAILY, at work, home, in the news, on Facebook, with family, friends etc… as we hit this issue all of the time. We use ‘truth’ as a weapon. We use ‘truth’ as ‘power’, or something that puts us on top, or makes us feel ‘right’ and others ‘wrong. We push others around with our truth and we act like our truth makes us better than someone else. We use it as if it is ours to wield and toss about like a circus juggler does his pins, and all the while, as we are trying to hold on to said truth, whatever it might be, it starts to change us and… our truth starts to change.
I can pick on them because I am one of them, but I grew up a very conservative Christian. 30 years ago they would NEVER allow a guitar in church or a woman in the pulpit. Now, women are in the pulpits (even though they say they are sunday school teachers) and a guitar is almost boring, it is so normal. But there was a group of us that grew up under the strict teaching about this stuff that was ‘evil and wrong’, and now today… not so much. How did that happen? What changed? Did the truth change, or did we change? We certainly toted at the time, that this was the absolute truth.
Really, think about… who you are NOW vs. who you were ‘then’. Did the truth change or did you? Did your understanding of the truth change? Did you choose to ignore what you used to know or believe? Though I try to shy away from politics in this blog, since it is pretty much about thoughts on life, dreaming, children’s books, flying, being a dad, a son, and engaged person to Elizabeth Love etc, politics is a crazy making topic but… it serves so well here. As you get older, the blacks and whites of facts start to blur, unless you choose to ignore reality vs. theory.
We have a group of religious fanatics on the other side of the world that are murdering people on video, for the world to see, all in the name of God. They ‘think’ they have, and are obeying the ‘truth’. Not many years ago, a small group of people overtook the German way of life and actually tried to exterminate a whole race of people (the Jews), because they thought the Jews had to go. How many hundreds of years ago were the Christians trying to wipe out the Jews, or for that matter anyone else who didn’t believe their ‘truth’? If you read your Bible, you will see, throughout the Old Testament, one story after the other of people wiping out people in the name of God, or obeying their idea of truth.
I wonder what would happen to this world, if we let the human condition of divinely given Love, be the director, operator and mover in this world, within the limits of ‘good’. Instead of spending billions on war, we could explore bringing fresh water to every tribe and country in the world that doesn’t have it. (It could be done). I wonder what would happen, if we stopped bickering over ‘our’ idea’s of how things ‘should be’ vs. ‘what works’, and let mankind live in some form of peace? Again, I know we are talking theory over reality and there is ALWAYS a bully around, but it’s a thought. I also know, at least in this way of life, that at times, war is the only way to stop someone who is intent on killing you. That’s a tough call and a hard life decision.
But my point is, the ownership of ‘truth’ has become more important than taking that ‘truth’ and living well with it. I would like to think, though all I know of him is his writings, that C.S. Lewis is a mentor of mine. I love how this man thinks. I love his writing, and stories, and often, go to bed listening to and wishing I was in Narnia. (Yep… even at my age.) His mentor was an author, poet, and Christian minister, George MacDonald, who lived from 1824 – 1905. I would like to think, if he were alive today, he would be a pilot! I read a quote that has stayed with me, in or out of context matters little to me, but it illustrates my point.
“You doubt because you love truth.”
Though I am sure the application of this isn’t what MacDonald was talking about I find it relevant and important.
When ‘having the corner on the market of truth’ has become more important than just being a decent human being, something is off. When ‘truth’ become a ‘members only club’ that cuts off certain socioeconomic groups, or a particular belief system, we’ve lost track. When ‘truth’ becomes so important that we can’t love and accept one another, again, we have lost track of the purpose of having truth in the first place or pursuing truth. We are so obsessed with being ‘right’ that often we are in the wrong.
When MacDonald says ‘we doubt because we love truth’, I hear, “you can’t make the leap to something bigger and better, i.e.having faith, or love, or goodness, because you would prefer to live within what you ‘know’, and that’s just not enough. I am sure that those that dreamed of flight 100’s of years ago, could have stayed rooted and stuck to the ground, or they could do what they did, which is bridge the gap between what was ‘known’ vs. the ‘imagined possibility of flight’. One day, that ‘unknown’ became a ‘known.
I would wish, that the time comes, when we view one another with a divine perspective outside of the realm of violence, and find a way to live on this world together. I would wish we could find the truths that are universal while keeping our own personal truths at bay, if they mean violence toward one another. I think, the pursuit of truth has become so important we’ve forgotten the purpose of truth.
Safe journeys this week.
