| Wrong A couple of things I�ve realized along the way: 1. Most people are wrong about most things most of the time. 2. I am just like most people. How do you live in light of that? Well, you get comfortable with uncertainty. That isn�t as hard as it sounds. The benefit of uncertainty is that it feeds creativity. I�m not sure how this works, but it does. I think it has to do with possibilities -- when you are aware that your conclusions are most likely wrong, you are more likely to consider what other conclusions could possibly be right. Creativity seems to have a lot to do with acknowledging all that�s possible. I keep my mouth shut a lot more often than I used to. This is likely because I�ve realized I don�t know as much as I think I do, but it�s also because most people don�t realize they are wrong most of the time about most things. And since suspecting they�re wrong is a long shot from actually being right myself, the arguments that ensue when I question their natural certainty are just futile and frustrating. A lot of people consider an assault on their certainty the same as an assault on their character. And the last thing I want to do is assault anyone�s character. That�s no fun at all. One way to proceed after realizations of this sort would be to assume that all truth is relative, which in essence allows me to create a personal truth and live accordingly. That, to me, is the lazy man�s answer. It undermines the question -- if there is no Right, how can anyone be wrong? If truth were relative, everyone would be right all the time -- until they try to apply their personal Truth to someone else. So the exchange for certainty is utter uselessness to everyone and everything around you. That�s certainly more depressing than living with uncertainty. No, I believe that there is a universal, absolute Truth. In fact, I�m certain of it. I�m just convinced it�s much more intricate and subtle than we are comfortable with. It is not obvious. It does not fit well into thirty minute sermons, or 100 page self-help manuals, or six-cassette audio series. It is God�s truth, and he is really the only being capable of understanding the fullness of it, in all its complexity. Mastering the truth - being right all of the time - is beyond the capacity of my little brain. Unsettling at first, this thought becomes comforting after a while. (If that is hard to understand, spend some time with a telescope on top of a roof on a clear night. Smallness is only frightening related to the task at hand. If it were my job to understand the universe, I would be frightened. It is comforting to learn that it isn�t my job, or even possible.) In Spanish, there are two words that both translate to our word for �know.� The first is saber, and it relates to knowledge and facts. Saber la respuesta = to know the answer. This is the way I have tried, and failed, to know the truth for a long time. The second spanish word is conocer. This word relates to people, almost exclusively. Conozco a Maria = I know Maria. It doesn�t mean I know the facts -- her height weight, date of birth, place of origin and current marital status. It implies the other kind of knowing -- the kind that does not fall easily into words, but has something to do with familiarity, even intimacy. It is the kind of knowing that comes almost entirely from experience. This is the way I want to know the truth. Jesus said �I am the truth.� Like most people, I�ve always assumed that means that he knows the truth and is willing to teach it to us. But these days, I don�t think that�s right. It could be that the truth is a person. A strange idea, a subtle, backdoor kind of idea. But it makes sense; people are much more complex and subtle than mere ideas, and harder to know. Yet still knowable. This is the task at hand: become friends with the truth. Daunting, yet familiar; clear, but nebulous. This is how you live with being wrong most of the time. You make friends with one who is right all of the time. And you hope, somehow, a little bit of that will rub off. It�s your only hope. I can live with that. |