Unflinching in the Truth
Recently in both my professional and personal life I’ve been confronted with some decisions that demand closer inspection. Policies or institutional choices I may be struggling to understand. Forks in a road I always thought would continue straight. Questions that require intense scrutiny — not only of what is being presented, but of oneself. In such moments I find comfort in reflection but also in the diverse answers that can be reached.
One thing I always loved about English and Literature in school, versus subjects like Math or Science, was that there was no right answer. In math, 2+2 will always equal 4 (unless you’re Radiohead). But with the arts, creativity abounds. I can understand and agree with one argument about the meaning of a poem or story while simultaneously supporting another argument with a completely conflicting view. It’s open to interpretation, and the deeper and longer you stare into the pond, the more answers are going to swim up towards you.
Thoughts such as these have led me to believe that in the best and worst of circumstances there are no right answers. I’ve worked in sales almost all my life, and any professional salesman (note I didn’t say ‘good’ salesman) knows that there’s no such thing as a fix-all solution. What may work for one person or company or group of individuals may not be the right thing for the next person or group.
Does it mean that only one of these groups is right and the other wrong?
The answer would depend upon where you’re standing.
So rather than choosing one side and pointing fingers at the other, I prefer to hang out somewhere in the middle. Truth is unwavering and cannot be changed. But it can also be viewed from many different angles. And perhaps it can only be understood when we perceive it in its entirety, which one viewpoint will never afford.
So I apologize for the obscure and cloudy references, but as I am able to understand my own thinking better through the actual act of writing than pondering things out on my own, I figured this would be an exercise worth pursuing. If nothing else comes of it, it’s helped me to be unflinching in my views of the truth, in that there is more than one angle to view it from.
The sun only sets if you’re standing still, and what a boring place the world would be if we all saw the same shapes in every cloud.
So when the truth is thrown at you, don’t flinch (but try not to drop it).
