Truth

Truth is the word that has suffered the greatest indignities of them all. When two people believe two different things about the nature of something, they can both be wrong or one of them can be right but they can't both be right. Truth is an impersonal concept, not a personal one. We can guide our lives by what we believe and be completely wrong. As I like to wander and find back roads, I have this experience more regularly than I would like to admit. My sense of direction isn't all that great, apparently my internal compass isn't working, and so I will sometimes end up in places I had no intention of going.

If I were not a man I would have somewhat fewer problems with this but since I am male I have a built-in aversion to asking for help and directions. As it is, I compound my problems by asking my wife to read a map and help me out. Since she is pretty bad at reading maps, it doesn't generally get us back on track to ask her to help in this way. I wish I could count the number of times she has said to me, "Just stop here at this store and ask."

Pride gets in the way, I won't ask for help and she won't spend time learning how to read a map, so I plow ahead without any real sense of where we are or where we are going. Sometimes there is a happy coincidence of finding ourselves where I intended to be. The way we now define humility would be for the person who knows the right way to affirm my current direction in order not to offend me and tolerance would be for Suzanne to sit back and enjoy the ride without respect to the destination. The reality is that there is a true way and what I really need is for someone to tell me I am headed in the wrong way and give me the truth, both about my mistake and the right way.