28 August 2018 Truth
Truth: the true or actual state of a matter: He tried to find out the truth.
conformity with fact or reality; verity: the truth of a statement.
a verified or indisputable fact, proposition, principle, or the like: the state or character of being true.
actuality or actual existence.
an obvious or accepted fact; truism; platitude.
honesty; integrity; truthfulness.
(often initial capital letter) ideal or fundamental reality apart from and transcending perceived experience: the basic truths of life.
agreement with a standard or original.
accuracy, as of position or adjustment.
Archaic. fidelity or constancy.
The above definition was taken from Dictionary.com and it is illustrative of the way our language has been debased to somehow equate emotion to actual truth when we use the terms “your truth” or “my truth” or other such terms.
There is only a singular truth. 2 + 2 is always going to equal 4. If you drop a rock from a building it is going to plummet to the ground not float away into space. If you cut your skin it is going to bleed. This is truth. How your perceive things is only perception, not truth.
I do not care how you want things to be in some illusory world you have created for yourself, it is not going to be reality unless it is grounded in a realistic view of the forces at work in the world you inhabit and how those forces operate. If you see a stop sign it will never become a go sign no matter how you tell “your truth” to the officer as they write you the traffic citation. If your perception does not comport with reality you will never be able to be happy with your place in the world.
Emotion and reality are sometimes the same thing, but not always; but, truth is always truth. Your emotions cloud your judgment and can make you see things too pessimistically or too positively. It is why you have to allow your emotions to be your early warning system not your critical thinking agent.
Emotion will alert you to an issue in your sphere of influence, but it is often only that. It is like a sensor telling you something is wrong so you can take the time to examine what has triggered the sensor. You then begin the troubleshooting process to determine what is the root cause of the issue to intelligently address the underlying problem.
We do not teach critical thinking skills anymore, not really. If people were taught to think through a problem it would not matter what was on a test because students would have the skills to think through the challenge successfully. Math problems are not biased in any way; if logic and an understanding of mathematics has been taught you will solve the problem. Same with grammar and history. If they have been taught properly you will solve the problem presented.
