The Unvarnished Truth
May 7th, 2008
We all think that we know the truth and that we act on that knowing all the time. We manage not to notice the myriad unresolved contradictions in our behavior, ideas, opinions, and beliefs, thinking of ourselves as unified and consistent.
Emotions play an enormous role in obscuring our vision in such matters. The more deeply we are emotionally attached to something, the less likely we are to clearly see it.
This is evident all around us. Why does that woman keep taking the abusive spouse back and why does she say he really loves her and has changed? We can see at a glance no such thing is the truth.
Her emotions and needs interfere with her seeing the stark truth. Her illusions are more comforting and do not require her to take action to change her situation. So she sees what she sees until she is ready to take responsibility for what is really happening in her life.
My cousin used to quarrel with kids at school. He would get mad, start to cry, and go sit in his seat, ripping all the buttons off his shirt. Afterwards he would tell his mother the other kids had done it and she would go on the warpath in his defense. She never noticed he was really a bully himself.
Later when he was in high school and I was still in grade school, we had a painfully sad conversation one sunny afternoon. He was slow in school and I was not. So, this particular afternoon, just the two of us stood in my driveway after the bus had gone. He timidly asked me if people ever just wake up knowing everything one morning.
I said I did not think so.
He replied that his mother always told him not to worry about having troubles with his schoolwork because one morning he would wake up and know it all.
I was thunderstruck. I did not want to tell him his mother/my aunt was feeding him bogus lies, but he plainly wanted to know the truth. As diplomatically as I could manage, I said I supposed that might happen in some rare case, but as far as I knew it was highly unlikely.
He sadly said he had begun to realize that was true. Then he thanked me and went home.
For him the recognition of the truth had to be a deeply sorrowful discovery, but it freed him to work with the reality of his situation and start finding what to do with his life. His mother certainly had done him no favors in avoiding the truth.
Truth can sometimes be a bitter pill, but then new doors open to possibilities hidden behind that ignored truth. I myself would rather find new doorways than remain stuck with nowhere to go.
This post is in the Change of Being Series begun on Earth Day. The prior post in the series was Reverence for Life. The next post is Commitment to Soul Purpose. Photo by Bern Sundell.
Copyright © Lexi Sundell 2008. All Rights Reserved.
8 Responses to “The Unvarnished Truth”
Andrea|Empowered Soul May 7th, 2008 at 9:12 pm #
Interesting article! I don’t think “the” truth really exists. We always view the world through our own unique perspective, our own frame of reference. It’s when our frame of reference ceases to serve us that we need to adjust it. Clinging to an idea of “the” truth just makes that process harder.
What is true for me in this moment may not be true for me in a week. And what is true for me may not ever be true for someone else. I think the biggest lesson is to accept that we each live our own Truth. Whether that works for us or not is our own business. Too many wars have been fought for the sake of being “right.” We have to respect each other’s right to create our own reality - whether we agree with it or not.
Wisdom is found in the question. I think we’d all be served to say “I don’t know” frequently. That way, the mind gets quiet and our Spirit can show us our personal Truth.
Blessings,
Andrea
ImprovedLife.ca May 8th, 2008 at 3:21 am #
Eighth Edition of the Carnival of Improving Life…
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Lexi Sundell May 9th, 2008 at 6:23 am #
Hi Andrea,
Good observations. The esoteric concept of the ring-pass-not is that the more you extend your circle of what is known around you, the more places it touches the surrounding expanse of what you do not know. In short, the more you know, the more you become aware of all that you do not know.
You speak of truth as highly relative and not at all absolute. I suspect both are “true” in ways beyond the comprehension of our human minds. Relative truth abounds at each level of consciousness.
Yet, each of those levels operates by certain fairly standard constants. Do those constants indicate some underlying absolute reality? Probably.
Can that absolute reality be codified into philosophical or religious dogma? Probably not without severe distortions and inaccuracies, since our human minds cannot even grasp that absolute reality.
At least it gives us something to do, figuring out how to deal with it all!
Lexi
gia May 10th, 2008 at 9:57 pm #
Nice post, Lexi. I read an interesting story about Edgar Cayce, the “sleeping prophet.” He had a horrible time learning. One night an idea occurred to him and he put his school book under his pillow. By morning he had memorized the whole thing. And that’s how he got through all of his school work. I wonder if your cousin was dyslexic, versus “slow.”
gia
Lexi Sundell May 11th, 2008 at 7:50 am #
Gia,
Given the way things went on the long term basis with that cousin I rather suspect he was slow rather than dyslexic.
However, his older brother, who also had difficulties is school, may very well have been dyslexic. My mother and I always felt the older one had some obscure and unusual talent that no technology existed for him to use, but we could never really put our finger on what it might be. We could just sense an amazing untapped ability in him.
Lexi
Aaron - Today is that Day May 11th, 2008 at 3:34 pm #
Lexi,
Great job with this post. Learning and taking action on the truth is indeed often harder to deal with than the fantasy that people build around themselves - even if that fantasy itself is painful.
Facing the truth requires us to also face the fact that it is up to US to change our circumstances, and that takes effort.
Lexi Sundell May 11th, 2008 at 3:39 pm #
Aaron,
You said a mouthful there! That self responsibility thing sure goes hand in hand with facing the truth!
Lexi
Robin May 20th, 2008 at 10:22 pm #
Hi Lexi - what can I say… a really great post. Finding truths about myself, and the doorways behind them, has been a big part of my life - and I can honestly say the results have been great.
Cheers - Robin