Back on Track
My friend Sam has a blog. One day, on Sam's blog, a discussion arose about bicycle helmets and the necessary or unnecessary courting of danger. During that "conversation" something happened. I realized that it was possible to srape away all the layers of prestige, conviction, jargon, and general clutter from one's intentions, and manage to say something entirely recognizable as truth. Truth here is to be distinguished from honesty, which I rather define as the belief in one's own truthfulness, and the subsequent attempt to be truthful, but which can be phenomenally wrong without our noticing it.
Maybe everything there is to know is right here before us, or even in us, hiding in our own voices and in our ability to discern.
Maybe everything there is to know is right here before us, or even in us, hiding in our own voices and in our ability to discern.
posted by Jeanne at 20:47
13 Comments:
Philosopher-poet are you!
That's quite a thought: "Maybe everything there is to know is ... hiding in our own voices and in our ability to discern."
I think what we really believe about the world, God, us, evidences itself in thousands of little ways, even if we lie to ourselves and no longer see it clearly. I think that's why perceptive people can tell when others are lying. I wonder if that’s what intuition really is?
I also think we all have the truth (Truth) somehow planted in us. “You do the math.” -- as they say.
i'm thinking. while i'm thinking, i'll be impressed.
Personally I think the very concept of "truth" is a pretty dangerous one. Truth changes as we do. It is far too easy to be trapped by a perception of truth - all we have is our perception. Honesty, in its own way, is more truthful than truth is.
Sam ... I think you just contradicted yourself.
Okay, maybe truth changes, and yesterday's truth is today's anchor. Maybe (probably)it's just as bad an idea to collect truth(s)as it is to collect anything else. I stand corrected. BUT.... that doesn't stop any particular moment from containing truth that is accessable and compelling. I really meant that you know it when you see it, and even when you should be looking.
I have developed a (hopefully pleasant) tendency to abuse parenthesis.
I mean, parentheses.
I didn't actually contradict myself at all. It is, however, encessary to turn one's idea of truth a little sideways and possibly upside-down and maybe even inside out.
I recommend a diet of Robert Anton Wilson, taken with a large pinch of salt.
Nothing wrong with parentheses abuse in my book, Jeanne (after all, I do it all the time).
Of course, if they offered us a way of editing our comments, I could correct that typo.
Truth that changes is no truth at all. We are all in relation to truth which makes it a relative concept due to our propensity for change. Problems arise not when we claim to believe in Truth but when we claim to own it.
Brendar-
I have to agree with you too. I am far too malleable today. Truth, by definition, is what is. What portions of it we are afforded is another matter.
"Honesty, in its own way, is more truthful than truth is."
Sam:
I meant that this sounds a bit like "An orange, in its own way, is more apple-like than an apple is."
Maybe it's a word-thing ...
I think it's because I'm a topographical thinker.
It strikes me as funny how humans get so caught up in the idea of unchanging truth. Spend too much time with the Old Man, me.
Does that mean that your brain has bumpy places where the mountains are?
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