meditatio at the water's edge

truth = perspective + relationship + reality

Randy's on target to point out the obvious 'truth' that the scriptures are all about things that happened to people and how God made ways for people to know and experience God and to learn how to live--to really live--as part of the rest of creation. I think the issue of truth is important, but not in the ways that I've heard that it was important in the past. This may help point out part of the problem in the conversation between those who are coming from a more modern/enlightenment/foundationalist perspective and those who are coming from a post-modern/post-enlightenment/post-foundationalist perspective--we're not talking about the same thing when we say 'truth.'

For me, truth used to be something you could possess. It was propositional, absolute, and undeniable--it was there for me to stand on. Truth was like Gibraltar. I saw postmodernity (through the eyes of watchmen of modernity) as quicksand. If postmodernity thought there was truth at all it would be like warm Jello: slippery, slimey, oozey. These ways of thinking and talking about truth objectify truth--they make it into a thing.

I think now that truth is like holding someone's hand. I remember the first time I held Torie's hand. Actually, a fonder memory is the first time we almost held hands. It was thrilling. So much mystery, so much fear and trembling. So much love (really wanting the best for her) and desire (wanting to be loved by her). We were walking back from the fireworks show over Lake Michigan and there were sparks flying of the tips of our fingers as they brushed against each other with each stride. We didn't take hold. We brushed knuckles.

We held hands the next day, and got married six years later.

When I hold Torie's hand, I experience someone who is there--really there. I don't have to recite a mantra, "She's there. She's there. She's really, really there." I'm not hung up on proving to everyone--or even myself--that she's there beside me--not a rock or a foundation or a pile of quicksand, but a living, breathing, growing, relating person.

When I hold Torie's hand, I hear what she's saying to me when we talk--or not. I don't know what she's thinking until she tells me--and even then there is often misunderstanding, miscommunication--but the more I know her, the more I can pick up on unspoken communication. My perspective on what she is saying is shaped by a long history of experiences as I learn how to better interpret the spoken and unspoken ways of communication. We get better at it, but I find that I am still often wrong about what she's feeling and thinking about--and so we talk more and understand each other better.

There's so much that can be picked apart in this analogy by those who care to, but for me, to reduce truth to abstract statements is not only unhelpful and unsatisfying, it is unreal. It may even be a form of idolatry--replacing a mysterious relationship with God with propositions one can place respectfully on a shelf (think about how 'absolute truth' can become an idol...). We all trust something and/or someone--maybe even many 'someones'--so let's just be honest about it get busy living.

As you brush knuckes with Reality, may sparks fly between your fingertips.