Note on THE SUMMER REFLECTION SERIES:

From the very beginning, the sole purpose of THE PORCH has been to create a space to ponder the subtle issues of business and life. In the almost 250 issues, no two issues have been alike. The SUMMER REFLECTION SERIES changes that as we circle-back to three of the most popular articles. As one of my favorite spiritual teachers, Jim Finley, often says: Repetition is not redundancy. I hope you find this to especially be true in June, July and August as I pull from the archives AND fine-tune the original expression. No doubt, you will be seeing each of these summer issues from a different moment in life … which always gives us the opportunity to see it in a new way. So pull up a chair and let’s dive-in …

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I was sitting out by the fireless fire pit in the Las Vegas backyard of my friend Shawn Williams. We were having one of those conversations that matter. You know, beyond the surface level of sports and weather. Genuine, meaningful, and vulnerable sharing back-and-forth. Then wisdom stumbled out of Shawn’s mouth: It’s real, but it’s just not true. It immediately caught my attention … an insight that I knew had implications way beyond our conversation-at-hand.

It was an insight that deserved its own conversation.

In subsequent conversations, Shawn and I have noticed numerous examples of the gaps between what is real and what is true. The implications are wide and varied. This idea, in its most simple terms, would indicate that someone can be having an experience that is very real to them, yet this “real” experience has nothing to do with truth. You might think of this as a tightly woven illusion. Another way to think of it might be that the stories we develop in our head have very real implications.

Beliefs can certainly alter reality, yet sometimes we don’t let truth alter either.

It feels, today, that we are experiencing more than just a drought of truth. It seems we may be experiencing an increasing lack of desire for the truth. So much has jumped in line in front of truth … labels, bias, prejudice, cliques, tribes, boundaries, expediency, convenience … along with self or group justification. Fattened-up on spin and sensationalism, I would suggest that we are starving for truth. Anchored in foxholes, we can fall into the trap of listening to what confirms our reality rather than challenges it. It seems the search is much more about what is confirmational rather than seeking what offers us the opportunity to be transformational – individually and collectively.

It is completely understandable. It feels better to embrace a sense of quick confirmation. We can feel smarter and justified. Oh yes, and then there is that sense of being correct. It’s as good as a warm blanket wrapping our own ego in comfort. And the experience of it all is very real. Believe me, I have used plenty of those blankets myself. And that is the truth!

It is often said that “perception is reality.” How true that is. Yet the reality we try to create is not always truth.  Frequently, this reality is not truth at all. I fully understand that I’m climbing out on a weak limb here because in a quick search to Dictionary.com or Webster.com you will see that each, in part, uses “reality” in the very definition of truth. I would concede that some reality is truth, but not all truth is the reality we create.

And without a genuine desire for truth, beyond all else, we are far more likely to deepen this reality we experience … whether it’s truth or not. And rarely is this intentional.

Which is what makes it even more dangerous.

In the opening pages of Fifty Years with the Golden Rule, written by J.C. Penny himself, I was struck by his warning of the impact of the increasing speed of change. And he wrote this in 1950! Speed has an impact on the formation of our reality if we don’t step back to observe its implications.

And so do the extremes of anything. Extremes move you closer to a false reality rather than deeper into a truth. You can see great examples of this in political parties, churches, countries, powerfully enriched industries, liberalism, and conservatism alike. I have found it in my own mirror as well. Perhaps you might have too.

So, who gets to decide what is true? I would suggest no one. It isn’t a decision. It’s an ongoing search amongst all of us. Once you decide, you quit searching for truth because you think you have found it … and your decision becomes your basis from which you build your entire reality. Unfortunately, even most well-intended judges and juries have missed the truth even when they were searching for it.

I think our best search for truth is lined by our diversity, by reaching and learning through all that seems uncomfortable, always questioning and doubting what we have decided to be true. Could it be paradoxically true that the more I cling to my perception of an absolute truth … the further I distance myself from the possibility of a deeper understanding of this very truth that I cling to?

The confidence we embrace in our individual reality makes us ever smaller. Whereas our collective search for truth can widen our perspective, while deepening our understanding. It is the difference of division and multiplication.

In our endless search for truth, it is unlikely we will find it. It ultimately finds us. And whenever it does, it’s a treasure in which we all can share in.

As always, I’D LOVE to hear your comments, insights, and wisdom. Please SHARE BELOW!

Published in its original format in the March 2017 issue of The Porch.