How Truth Got a Life

The other morning, I woke up to discover a little truth. At least, it seemed like a truth to me, but I wanted to make sure. I figured a good philosopher could help me with that.

PhilosophersForHire.com listed a local expert on little truths. So I wrapped up my truth and went to see him.

The philosopher held the truth in his hands and shook his head. “Doesn’t feel like a truth to me,” he said. I asked him why not. He explained how this little truth just doesn’t make any sense.

“But it makes perfect sense to me!” I protested.

“To you,” he explained, “but not to a philosopher.”

“So who is the measure of truth?” I asked. “Who does truth have to make sense to?”

“Listen,” he replied, “you wanted an expert opinion, and you’ve got one.” Then, seeing my distress, he pondered once more and suggested, “On the other hand, you might want to see a scientist about this. They sometimes have a different set of truths.”

At the scientist’s office, things went somewhat differently. “So let me see your little truth,” said the scientist.

“It’s right here,” I said.

“But I don’t see it,” he answered. Then, recognizing my disappointment, he suggested, “Perhaps you have some other way of verifying its existence?”

I struggled to find some evidence the scientist would accept. Truthfully, he did find the evidence somewhat compelling, but he explained that none of it would fit into any of the current paradigms. “Maybe we can make a new paradigm?” I said. But the scientist didn’t feel that such a little truth would warrant a whole new paradigm. Paradigms, it seems, are a major investment nowadays.

“I’m willing to take the risk,” I answered. “Even for a little truth.”

So he sent me to see a venture capitalist who funded little truths and new paradigms. I showed him my little truth and told him all about how I had discovered it one morning, and what the philosopher and the scientist had to say. He didn’t seem interested in all that. All he wanted to know was one thing: what could my truth do?

To tell you the truth, I hadn’t thought of that yet. My little truth was jumping up and down, all eager to show us what it could do. But I felt uneasy. I knew it was true, but who says it would work for a venture capitalist? Truth just seemed so inadequate in relation to the real world.

So I went home. That’s where I had found my little truth, and that’s where it was going to stay. My little truth, however, wouldn’t let me alone. It kept on pleading, “Try me! Test me! See how I can work!”

I told it, “Listen, little truth, better you just stay at home in my mind. After all, the philosopher didn’t believe you. The scientist couldn’t see you. The venture capitalist wouldn’t invest in you. Who says you will work?”

“There’s only one way to find out!” it exclaimed.

“But I’m not willing to take the risk,” I answered.

My little truth began to cry. “Since the beginning of creation,” it pined, “I have waited to be born into this world. But you will not let me out of the womb in which I was formed. In fact, I am not truth, for I am not yet born. I will never be truth entirely, until someone will allow me to place my feet upon the ground and do something real.”

“Please!” the little truth begged of me. “Please, let me be born.”

So I tried out my little truth. And lo and behold, it had real applications. It worked. My life was significantly enlightened. Since then, my truth and I have successfully uncovered many other little truths—and some larger ones as well. And all of them got to become real.

In case you’re wondering what this story is all about, it’s about Moses and about the spies he sent.

At Sinai, all the people got Truth—with a capital T. But the spies weren’t ready to test it out in real-world applications. They felt it was safer to keep truth inside its womb, in the world of the spirit, of meditation and prayer.

Moses said, “For Truth to get its capital T, its feet must touch the ground.”

“But it can’t!” the spies protested. “It doesn’t make any sense on the ground. Leave it in the air where it does make sense!”

But Moses said, “Truth doesn’t have to make sense to you or to anyone else. In fact, if it is really Truth, nobody will fully grasp it. It is like the challah, which you cannot eat without first putting aside that which is beyond you. Truth is Truth only because it is real, and it has to be real in this real world.”

“It can’t!” the spies exclaimed. “You can see for yourself, the world’s not ready for Truth with a capital T. The world will swallow it alive!”

But Moses saw Truth in all its glory and he believed in it, more than he believed in anything of this world. And he said, “Truth is real, and it will be real, and we are going to make it real.” And, eventually, that’s what the Jewish people did. In every possible condition of the real world, geographically, historically and sociologically.

And it worked.

Try it.