That is, no doubt, why I rarely read fiction or watch sitcoms and such. It's just too boring when I can be watching or reading real things.
At this rather late date in life I've made another amazing discovery, and that is that most people do not want to know the truth. This is a stunner to me. Apparently Tertullian was right when he wrote that "truth, from her first appearance, is an enemy."
I crave the truth. I don't care what the situation is, if it's the truth I can handle it. In fact, I cannot handle anything but the truth. I am willing to do a 180 with my paradigm if the truth requires it.
As a matter of fact, some of the truths I have discovered in the past year or two were so shocking that I was driven to my knees. I didn't like it. I hated it. I couldn't believe it. I would have loved to deny it. But how can one deny reality? Truth is the reality of the matter.
There is no such thing as 'your truth' or 'my truth.' There is only THE truth. If your truth says it's raining outside, and my truth says the sun is shining, that doesn't alter the truth that hailstones as big as golf balls are coming down. And all you have to do is walk outside and get struck by a few dozen of them in order for the truth to drive you back into the house post haste. I trust you can see the logic.
And therein lies the problem with denial. Or call it rejection of the truth. Denial is not reality, and unless you are operating within reality - or the truth - the consequences are always going to be bad.
Lies imprison us. The truth sets us free. And that is the truth.
So why do so many people, then, not want to know the truth? I hate to think it, but the truth is that I believe people are cowards. The truth is very often frightening.
It's hard to tell most people the truth, but if you don't tell them, it's going to show up anyway. Because you also can't hide the truth. It may come to the party late, but it will arrive, even if it's an unwelcome guest.
The exact opposite of what is generally believed is often the truth. That is especially the case about what we know about what is going on in our political system and in the world, for that matter. I have found that people have constructed a United States paradigm in their own little boxes, and that's the way it IS, and that's the way it's going to STAY...in their own minds, at least. We often look askance at those who denied the truth in ages past, and yet we deny the truth ourselves.
Tolstoy wrote, "If we would only stop lying, if we would only testify to the truth, it would turn out at once that there are hundreds, thousands, even millions of men just as we are, who are as afraid as we are of seeming to be singular by confessing it, and are only waiting, again as we are, for someone to proclaim it." Hmmm. I wish! I would say he is too optimistic; that hasn't been my experience. Indeed, just the opposite. Almost no one seems to want the truth. Lies are irresistible.
Someone has said that mankind is in need of a noble lie. But what will the result be when your belief system has its foundations built on a lie? You will have built your house upon the sand when the wise man builds his house upon the rock of truth.
The truth these days is very difficult to face. It is not for the faint of heart. But it will be even harder to handle when it shows up one day and you are not prepared for it.
I have a tendency to agree with Montaigne: "I tell the truth, not as much as I would, but as much as I dare. And I dare more and more as I grow older."
Speak the truth and run.
Royal Heir
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