Truth, the WHOLE Truth

The Truth, the WHOLE Truth

 Wouldn’t it be good if people were like the courts wanting the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?  Too often that isn’t the case.

Evidence is easily accepted if it supports a desired position. Information that challenges a position leads to an admission of an error; an argument lost, a compromise needed. Compromises mean something of value will have to be given up, rarely a desired result.

Make a good first impression. Why? That first impression is held like a fact even though it is only a partial truth. One may feel changing the initial impression requires a chisel, a hammer and much persistence. No one likes to be told they are wrong. Even worse a revised position may lead to a multitude of other adjustments. Perhaps the conflicting evidence is better left unsaid.

In the novel, Baggage burdens., there are many instances where absence of the whole truth is chosen. It leads to friction and pain.

Facts about Jill have little effect in the Orthodox Community Church.

“Don’t think I haven’t heard the whispers about me being headstrong, not knowing my place, feeling I’m too good for them. I’ve heard it all.” Decibels rise with Jill’s anger. I know they don’t like the fact that I took courses to improve myself and that I’m homeschooling my girls. I’ve tried to explain to them why I want to do it. The next week I hear the same people griping about the same thing. I might as well have been talking to a wall.

                        Josey’s Confession

“I told you how my blindness about your father’s drinking caused me to adopt a poor strategy of dealing with him. Well, his drinking blinded me to seeing that outside of his drinking he was a good man.”

“No. Hear me out,” says Josey. “Your mother saw something good in him that I couldn’t or didn’t want to. I can’t even say I know what it was.

“Then Alice became ill. There were tests and tests and tests. Eventually we learned she had lung cancer. When she was hospitalized, Frank spent every minute that he wasn’t at work with her. Near the end he took a long-term leave and stayed with Alice day and night. What surprised me is he quit drinking. He quit smoking. Completely. No stepping out for a drag and then returning.

Alice said she thought it was a way of him trying to say if he could, he would do anything to help her. He really does love me your mom said. I let my bias about his drinking blind me to the possibility that he was capable of any love. I didn’t think he had it in him.”

Frank, Alice’s husband, was no good. Josey’s impression of Frank arose from the fact that in his youth Frank was a party animal. It didn’t matter that later Frank was a good provider for his family, or that Alice loved him.

Because Josey refused to get the whole truth about Frank she caused suffering for Frank, Alice and Jill.

Jill rejects the Josey’s facts. They conflict with her fast held impression of her father.

“He loved her! Mom loved him. Impossible,” thinks Jill

haiku capsule:

                                                                            tell the whole story

                                                         partial truth causes suffering

accept facts––hard choice

Next blog: LOVE, a weakness