G Spot
Finding Truth
By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo
LOGIC is concerned with truth, and it has presented us with a set of rules which are assumed to be self-evident. But not all truths are self-evident. What maybe logically true may not be the truth, in reality. Over time, I realized that there are probably as many truths as there are species of trees.
Where an advocacy is being pursued, it is necessary to establish a sense of truth and authenticity. Truth in this sense means, fidelity to an ideal and being in sync with a concept of good, rather than to analyze the truth in the ideal itself, or to impose this ideal in others. In advocating for a human life that is anchored on caring and respect for other manifestations life, the objective is not that of conversion, but rather at presenting a face of truth, which may find a space, in another person’s consciousness, so that he/she may evolve his/her own truth. The advocate’s job is to be true to what he/she believes in, but he/she must also be ready to understand the context of the truth in others.
There are labels and labels appropriated for advocates. Fr. Robert Reyes is being called a “running priest” as a result of using his limbs to pursue his advocacy for the environment. Sr. Mary John Mananzan is being called a “feminist” for defending the cause of oppressed women. I am called an environmentalist. And yet, while these labels represent “truths” at some stages of a person’s journey, they do not reflect the many layers of truth in one’s life. Very few people know that Fr. Reyes is a trained forensic pathologist, and Sr. Mary John paints. And while most people know that I am poet, very few people know that I was a surrogate parent to my siblings, while my father worked abroad, and my mother attended to the farm.
Our advocacy is part of who we are. They are expressions of how we want the world to be. They are truths seen from our own lenses. They mirror aspirations of what we want to become. And while we believe that the path we currently take may be the “truth”, they are not, in any sense, the only truth. It is important to keep this in mind when we approach another person to embrace, tie a ribbon, or to “save” a tree. Advocates must wear a readiness, an acceptance even, of another person’s truth.
Belief systems, especially, our own spiritual “truths” have led many to act extremely in the pursuit of these truths. It has led to the Inquisition. It has led to the Holocaust. When strategically used to pursue greed and domination, it has led to the extinction of life forms, and it continues, in a maddening, self-annihilating pace. We should stop killing others, and eventually killing ourselves for the truths we bear on our shoulders.
FINDING TRUTH
11 November 2015 4:19 p.m.
do not look too close
or too deep into the eyes
to find the truth
in the darkness
there is darkness
in the truth
that becomes visible
only in the deep
of the mire
the eye is not a mirror
or a window
it is a wide-open highway
to an abysmal labyrinth
of dark truths
half-truths
evolving truths
truths that lead to other truths
truths that lie
truths that tell the truth
truths swimming
in between truths
truths that end,
and never end.
(For your comments and reactions, please email to: punch.sunday@gmail.com)
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