Pack up your Lunchables and juice box and prepare to take a whimsical journey with me to a land of make believe, a veritable utopia of warm fuzzies and positive affirmations. This is a place where everyone is right. It is here that evidence, data, facts, and science are malleable, redefined, or simply ignored. Absent is the tyranny of absolutes; what one says is, simply because one declares it to be. On the surface, or at least what I claim to be the surface, this sounds ideal. As an autonomous citizen in this realm, I can’t be contradicted or corrected. I just have to decree that my opinion, belief, or worldview is my truth, regardless of its veracity or reality. Let’s say, hypothetically speaking, that you have the opportunity to test drive a Porsche 911 Turbo. It doesn’t even have to be the S. I know, why go slumming in the pedestrian base model. You love the car, because of course. But instead of going back to the dealership, you drive home and park it in your own driveway. Curiously, the dealer and members of the law enforcement community have questions. “Did you opt for the Heritage Design Leather Interior?” “What about the Adaptive Sport Seats Plus (18-way) with Memory Package?” “Surely you requested the PASM Sport Suspension (Lowered 10mm). No? Are you some kind of sociopath?” While I would consider these questions obvious, I’d speculate that they took a less amiable tact as the handcuffs were being secured and the taser readied. Instead of assuming a posture of remorse or regret, you indignantly defend yourself, claiming that you are the rightful owner of the Carrera. You assert that you drove the car and it is parked in your driveway, ergo, it must be yours. This, after all, is your truth, and you tell the arresting officers to remove the restraints, thank you very much.
Absurd, right? And it would even be funny if that thought process wasn’t so prevalent these days. The culture in which we live has allowed, or to some degree fostered, a climate that condones a very fluid definition of truth, of what actually is or isn’t. It has become acceptable for a person to state what he or she (or whatever pronoun they identity as) believes as fact, making it so, in spite of evidence to the contrary. The meaning of words is changed to suit a particular narrative. Confusion, frustration, and chaos rein as we try to reach a solution, agreement, or conclusion speaking, as it were, different languages. There is no other outcome when your “truth” or my “truth” clash with THE truth. What to do?
(Click “Stand on Firmer Ground” for a deeper look into My Truth)