There’s a grammatical and intellectual tragedy occurring with the word “truth”. It’s been reduced to something that we can each own—my truth, his truth, her truth. Truth in reality is greater and grander than anything anyone can call their own; we can’t claim to possess it. It’s too big, and it’s too outside of us to lay claim to anything but a corner of it.
My story, my perspective, my experience—these are all valid expressions. But claiming something is “my truth” has the dark side of suggesting that anything different from what we present as “our truth” might be viewed as questionable and perhaps offensive. It can insinuate that my stand can’t be disputed or even discussed.
Truth is larger than any of us, or any experience or viewpoint we can have. We can’t try to own it without doing great damage to the concept of truth and to our understanding of our own story. The goal should be to live in as much truth as we can, understanding that we will never be the owner, but always the junior partner.
Leave a Reply