Truth #2

"If the answer matters, you have your answer"

-Tim O'Brien

Truth, for a five letter word, is extremely complex. It is definitely not a simply defined word, but instead, it is extremely unique. I wrote a blog about truth two years ago and as I reflect on it now, I have come to realize how differently I feel about the word. I define it completely differently as I used to. For example, I have come to think of it as a simple reality.

As I have matured, I have learned more about the world and established different morals that define me as a person. I have discovered that there are such a great number of beliefs and that it has personally become harder to categorize or classify people based upon their beliefs. People have different morals that make up their own reality. Everyone holds a separate book full of knowledge of their own memories. Whether it be things that they have heard, things that they have seen, or the way that they have lived everyone is completely different. Just because we share a similar genetic code, does not mean that we are the same. Tim O'Brien shares this in How to Tell a True War Story by stating that "If the answer matters, you have your answer." I think that this is his way of telling us that every person has a different perspective, and that each person's unique perspective is true to them.

We can look at different perspectives just by looking at our bipartisan government system. We vote people into office because we believe in them. We might have trust in their beliefs or we might believe that they will benefit us in some way or another. This being said, many people look for a mutual connection between our morals and a politicians morals. I think that the reason we have more than one political party is because we are not all the same, we have different things that are true to certain individuals. Democracy would be impossible if there were only one right answer to every political issue.

Truth is anything that touches home. I think there is more to the word than its traditional definition of something factual. I believe truth is about your own reality, and there can be more than one reality. The truth is not something that is cut and dry, we argue about different truths because we have different truths.