Speaking the truth to one another is not just an act of trust or courage. Ideally, it is an act of love..
Is it even possible to give someone just the facts? I do not doubt the existence of a shared world that our facts come from, but I sincerely question our ability to convey those facts without feeling. Feelings are part of that shared world. We want to cut our first-person perspectives that makes all knowledge possible and meaningful.
I do not mean to say that telling the truth should be a fluffy, feel-good distortion that bypasses reality. Are we not capable of a truth-telling that is based in reality, the whole reality that includes the feelings of human beings, including ourselves? And this does not mean that telling the truth with love will prevent pain on the part of the receiver (or on the part of the sender, for that matter). The truth can hurt, as we have been told, and hurt is not masked by love. I not sure what love achieves in the telling of truth, but I think it may be the only way to fully engage in the reality of our lives.
I grew up surrounded by people who often wielded the truth as a weapon, and I struggle everyday to lay down those habits. I want to work everyday for greater clarity through truth--telling the truth to myself and to others, as much as I am able to, with love. What do you think? Is the truth even the truth if it is not at all attune to the beings who share it? Or am I just further muddying the waters of what truth is in the first place by placing these demands upon our telling of it?
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Watching, Reading, Eating
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| (Lazy breakfast day...) |
Moooooore! Please!
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