Another Person’s Lie

Hewitt & Friends Piano Moving
“trust us if you dare”

Why doesn’t “T” ruth exist anymore? How can we all have our own truths? I think we are lying when we say that this way works for one child and this for another when we are discussing something as substantial as whether to send our children to public school or home-school. Most people I talk to, read their blogs/writing, keep their kids home from public school because they dislike the system. They know it does not work as an educational system and don’t want their kids to take part. I think the larger question here, is who is responsible for our children’s education? Parents or the government? And I think this ties in nicely to your posts on money as well. Who is responsible for us as individuals? Most people who write in to this blog lamenting that public school is the only option for their family state financial reasons for it. As much as you write about your desire to see people come to a realization that our money-driven culture needs to change, why don’t you call their bluff?

I love this comment, not so much because I’m in full agreement, but because it cuts right to the grizzled core of not only how we chose to raise our children, but pretty much everydamnthing that defines what it means to be alive and human. What is the truth? Or, to use Ali’s treatment, what is the “T”ruth? And perhaps equally intriguing to me: How can we all have our own truths?

Let me be clear: I believe that in many cases there is such a thing as an ultimate “T”ruth that precludes all other smaller truths. Some of these “T”ruths can be supported by the hard evidence of human experience and knowledge. The world is round. The sun is hot. Sausage is delicious. Van Halen was never the same after David Lee Roth. Those sort of things.

But those aren’t the “T”ruths that interest me, if only because they have already been clearly established as such. I’m much more intrigued by the confluence of “T”ruths and “truths,” and by how the dominant cultural narrative of our time informs our perceptions and assumptions regarding what is true and honest, and what is not.

Here are some “T”ruths as I see them:

We are inexorably connected to the natural world. Whatever harm we do to nature, we do to ourselves. Indeed, whatever harm we do to one another, we do to ourselves.

We have created a so-called economy that fails to acknowledge our connection to the natural world and one another and in fact tends to “reward” those who do the most to sever it.

Broadly speaking, the manner in which we have come to educate our children feeds the prevailing story of humans-over-nature.

Our common cultural assumptions surrounding money and wealth and success all but ensure that we will be rich in that which does not matter, and poor in that which does.

The world is a place of immense beauty and abundance. It is only our anthropocentric arrangements – all of which can be undone, if only we chose to undo them – that can make it appear otherwise.

I suppose I could go on, and probably for quite some time. But there’s one more “T”truth I want to get to, because, as mentioned above, I believe it has a profound impact on how we view truth and how we arrange our lives in support of that truth:

The dominant narrative of our time – our story, if you will – has given rise to cultural-societal-economic arrangements that make it extraordinarily difficult to honor and even acknowledge these “T”ruths.

In other words, a convergence of factors – mostly revolving around what it takes for people to simply survive in contemporary America – supports the widespread repudiation of these “T”ruths and in fact actively thwarts their adoption and dissemination. And it is here, at least in part, that we come to the idea that we must all have our own truths.

At the risk of drawing this out for waaaay too long, allow me to explain. We must all, in some way or another, determine how to navigate this world. And “this world,” as it exists, includes the simple fact that many of the basic essentials of human survival have been monetized. In other words, we need money to survive, and because money does not just happen, we are compelled to earn it. And because our economy has evolved in a manner that does not acknowledge the “T”ruths outlined above, we are compelled to join the chorus of the dominant narrative just so we can survive.

So when Ali asks why “T”ruth doesn’t exist anymore, I think it’s because we simply can no longer afford to have “T”ruth exist anymore. Not all “T”ruths, of course, but many. Perhaps most, and certainly the ones mentioned above. I feel tremendous empathy for those who feel caught in the web of arrangements that compel them to navigate their lives in a manner that does not feel entirely honest, and I believe this is true for most of us, at least to some extent. I know that I do not always conduct myself in accordance with what I know to be “T”rue, though I sure as heck try.

Here’s something else I believe to be true, or maybe even “T”rue: Many “T”ruths have exceptions (ah, but might that mean they are no longer “T”rue? Hmm…), and it is in the context of these exceptions that we call allow one another the freedom to have our own truths.

Because fact of the matter is, sometimes one person’s “T”ruth is another person’s “L”ie.