Perspective changes how we understand truth. I believe what we consider to be truth is part of a much bigger entity. The apostle Paul said we see through fogged up glasses. It is interesting to me that people think they have a handle on truth, and that gives them the right to judge everyone else. I find that much of what we believe is truth is based on faith. In spite of that some feel they must prove that what they believe is really true based on facts. They take what little they have and recreate it into something very different. Others take it as a mandate and try to force it on everyone else. I have been chasing truth all my life. This poem shares some of what I have learned.
Chasing Truth
I run toward truth
Arms wide open as a lover’s embrace
Breathless with anticipation
I move through the swamp’s fog
Heading for higher ground
*
I reach for truth
Gathering it as bort on the diamond cutter’s floor
Only to find the chips
Are parts of a much larger facet
Shining as they may
They are only the edges of a greater glory
*
I grasp truth
As a child clings to his toy
Thinking no one else will possess it but me
Settling for sparkling dust on the cutting room floor
And seeking no more
*
I find truth
Shining in all its faceted glory
Set in nature’s gold and love’s embrace
Only to tarnish it
With Id and Ego
Thinking it is I who makes it shine
*
I face truth
Dimmed by all its light
Surely if I change it some,
It will suit me much better when not so bright
*
So, I grind it
With mortise and pestle
‘Till all it becomes is dust in the bowl
Never again to be part of the whole