We hold these truths...

Facts and truths...

What a glorious day, isn’t it? Feels a bit like this:

I just read an article about Trump’s lawyer Cleta Mitchell’s resignation from her law firm. In it, she claims, “Those who deny the existence of voter and election fraud are not in touch with facts and reality.” How divorced from reality do you have to be to believe you are fighting voter and election fraud while you sit in on a call asking an official to “find 11,800 votes” or it will be a “criminal offence”?

This is what I was talking about yesterday… 

I was thinking about facts and their importance to civilization. After all, how can anyone make good decisions if they are unacquainted with - or deny the existence of - relevant facts? 

But today, I’m thinking more about truth. And to me, truth is only somewhat related to facts. 

Facts are objective and indisputable; accurate representations of known information at a given time. Truths, by my definition, can be subjective, open to interpretation and personal perspective. They can encompass beliefs and gut feelings, self-knowledge and expectations. They can be based on facts, but they may be based on understanding. 

The existence of gravity is a fact. The existence of God is, for some people, a truth. 

For the past ten years, I have been inspired by and learned from speakers of the organization The Center for Spiritual Living. Don’t worry, I have no desire to convert anyone to anything. But I have personally found enlightening the weekly talks by Chris Michaels. One of the mantras he often repeats is that we shouldn’t let the facts of our life confuse the truth of our life. 

What does he mean? Simply that facts can change, but our truths define us. 

For example: My truth is that I am a writer. It’s who I am. A fact of my life is that I have not sold a book or a screenplay. I could tell myself I’m a failure and should give up. That I clearly must not be a writer because the facts contradict my truth. I could let those facts stop me from continuing to try. 

But a fact can change - I could sell a screenplay this year. My lovely and supportive family told me last night to revive the novels I’ve written - try again to get them published. It’s possible they could be. The only way to guarantee the fact remains is to give up and stop trying.

So I will not be discouraged by the current fact of my life. I will pursue my truth - “I am a writer” - and see if I can change the facts. 

This can work for anyone. 

Perhaps a fact of your life is that you are struggling financially. Or that you hate your job. But is this your truth? Do you believe you are someone who must hate their job or struggle to make ends meet? Surely not. 

Work to change the fact. Where there is upheaval (like today’s economy), there is opportunity. The important thing is to know you are not trapped. You might feel trapped, but there is always a different way to do things. 

Perhaps a fact of your life is that you are single. If your truth is that you want to be single, hurrah! But if your truth is that you’d like to share your life with someone, then know that there is someone you can meet. The universe works in funny ways and you never know when you might bump into someone in the line for groceries or the next time you log into Hinge. 

Knowing the difference between the facts of our lives and the truths of our lives can offer us the strength that comes from hope. I believe hope is our most powerful emotion - it can be life saving. 

Perhaps the fact of your life is that you’re struggling with addiction and have hit rock bottom. It might seem like there is no way out and that there is nothing left to live for, but if you can convince yourself to take small steps to make different decisions - as small as a phone call to a professional asking for help - you can start the path to recovery. You can find a new truth - a truth that life can be healthy and happy...

Going back to my first post about Soul, a “truth” in which I believe is that we all have a “spark” - no matter how young or old we are. We all have a reason to be and can find something in life to interest us and help us grow (to me, this is the point of life). As has been said before, if you woke up today, it’s because there’s something for you to do. You have a purpose and you have value.  

I’ll conclude by saying as we all know, Thomas Jefferson - who may have been brilliant, but has a lot to answer for - wrote “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

He believed in this truth, though it was not a fact - as evidenced by his owning of slaves. 

May this new era we are entering today make these eloquent words both truth and fact. We are all equal and we all have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. 

We all have a spark and whatever our personal truths, whatever the facts of our life, each new day provides us the chance to be who we are or change what we want.