Truth

Growing up was a somewhat unusual experience for me. I was very unsure about myself as an individual. However, I was extremely certain about what I knew. I had no problem at all arguing about what was true. In my teenage years this got out of control. Once when we were at the ranch I was arguing with my dad about something insignificant. He stopped the truck and I asked what for. He said, “I’m going to tie you to this fence post. It will help you learn that arguing with it gets you nowhere, the same as arguing with me.”

I protested for a while and his response was something like this. Ok, I’m going drive to the cattle pens. You are going to walk there. That will take you about ten minutes. While you walk you can think about what I told you. If you still want to argue once you get there, I can find plenty of posts with which you may argue. You can take your pick.

As usual he had exactly the right answer. I never argued with him again, but that lesson didn’t apply as well to others. Later in my life I learned another lesson that helped me argue less. I was talking to a friend and said there are two sides to every story. She replied, “No there are three sides, your side, their side and the truth.”

That reminded me of a scene from the movie, Return of the Jedi. Luke confronted Obi Jaun Kanobi about Obi Jaun telling him that Darth Vador killed his father, when in fact Darth Vador was Luke’s father. Obi Jaun  told Luke that what he said to Luke was true, from a certain point of view. He then went on to say, “many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view.”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nO0uJenOgw

The truth that I experience as I write this is that I am sitting still. However, science tells us the earth is rotating at about 1,000 mile per hour. It orbits the sun at about 67,000 miles per hour and the sun is moving at 448,000 miles per hour through our galaxy. Even though all my senses tell me I am sitting still, science has proved I’m not. 

If my senses can be so off, then what about my thoughts and opinions?

May you have enough today, one moment at a time,