We spend a lot of time talking about the truth. Truth is a huge concept and recently, I have come to believe there are two truths. Truth with a capital T and truth with a small t.

Truth with a capital T are the big Truths. The earth is round, the sky is blue, ice is frozen water. There are thing that are universally accepted as fact. Things that are not affected by view point, experience or perspective. The easier of the two truths.

Truth with a small t. These are the tricky ones, the ones that cause fights. The ones that lead to misunderstandings. The ones that are different for everybody. Completely shaped by perspective and our internal filters.

When police talk to witnesses after an event, almost every one has a slightly different take on what happened. When we talk about events in our past, we often have different memories than those from others that were there. No one is lying about what happened, they just have different truths. Some where in between all the little truths surrounding an incident or event, lies the big Truth.

We need to use compassion to understand each other so we don’t try to force our truths on others. Your truths are no less valid than anyone else’s. Learn to really understand that there at least two sides to every story. Try to remember that the Truth lies in the middle of the truths.

Doug

P.S. I love hard philosophical questions. Ask away!