Truth or Good
It is more important to want to do good than to know the truth. - Petrarch
Now this quote has caused me conflict, true conflict in my life and in my spirit for many reasons; two - the top two, the first one is I got a touch of the “lex dixia” and so when I first read it many many years ago I read it as - “Is it more important.”
And so that led me to question it and bring it into my meditation practice to mull over, chew on it, dive into it, question it, and use this in my life.
And then, later hearing it, rereading it, and understanding it as a statement,
“It is more important.” Caused me conflict, because I believe it is better to have bitter truth than pretty lies.
It is our duty, to know thyself, to have truth, to hold truth, for truth is understanding, and understanding gives you knowledge. Truth is important. It is the base. It is the foundation.
And so it has caused me conflict. Truth, truth. It is all that we need is truth.
As a child, I was at a wedding, and I was very small, and the bride was getting dressed, and I said, “My mom says you shouldn't be wearing white”. Everyone turned to me. And I was like, “My mom says she knows why”. And I remember everyone becoming so upset. And at the time, I didn't know that that was a truth that shouldn't have been said. And then I have chewed on the concept of truth can be a weapon, right?
“Well, she said that.”
“Or, well, I'm only saying the truth…No one can be mad at me.”
I'm only saying the truth…But what is the purpose of that truth? And that is, again, why this caused me conflict.
I was only saying the truth, but then the truth isn't always good.
And as someone who knows many, many, many truths at this point in this lifetime and I hold a well of truth within me… it is harnessed by a bubble of good. Because when I think about truth, Truth in the mind's eye of our world is used as a weapon.
Because think about this, when truth becomes whatever that of “power” decides, whether it be a person, a place, or a thing… 2 + 2 = 5, then we lose the truth because of what is said.
Or on a more gentle and genuine loss of truth. There's a YouTube channel that's my favorite, Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell. And they have a whole video on how they fell into a lie, right? It was something like 100,000 capillaries stretching around the world, and they go into it.
And how it was just because it essentially was telephone. It fell into the unknowable truth because of, well, they said it, and then they said it, and then they cited it, and then they cited it, and then they said it, and they cited it.
And so truth is lost not because of an intentional malice, it is that truth can be lost.
And that is the interesting thing of truth, unbeknownst to you, without any malice, truth can be lost. And so then I chew on this. I chew at this conflict, because truth is not always good, truth is not always right.
Truth is a three-sided blade, It is in the gray. Truth is malleable. Truth can be lost. And since truth can be a weapon that must be wielded but can be altered, I think that it is to seek good, because truth is not often good.
And so if you then hold truth, it is incumbent unto you to deal in what is good.
When you're an adult and you have children, you have lots of truth. Is it for you to give them or to do good by them?
And so, I come to the point in this meditation of which I have found that though you may know the truth, it is incumbent it is behoove of you to give good unto the world, because the truth is so easily modified.
