Surprise

Good lord, I wrote this post almost two years ago. Who knew that I have so much wisdom? Now the trick is not to forget it.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Capital-T Truth

As my mentor and teacher Pegasus recently wrote to me,
"The interesting thing for me is to find the balance - or perhaps to see the thin (but infinitely deep) line between not taking it personally and hearing what is said, even when it may not be totally accurate."

When it comes to interpersonal relationships of all kinds - romantic, platonic, family, friends, co-workers - the hardest thing during a disagreement is to see where each person is coming from, and accept that that you may be approaching a common situation from wildly different angles, instead of pointing fingers or assigning blame. When two people care about each other enough to try and resolve a disagreement, it seems inevitable to try and reach a consensus of the "Truth" of what happened in a situation. But is agreeing on the capital-T Truth the goal of resolving these conflicts? What about acknowledging that each person has their own Truth that may not agree with yours? Who is to say which Truth is better or correct or more accurate? Or that the point of resolving a conflict is to agree on the Truth? Maybe resolving a conflict comes down to realizing that the other person has their own Truth, which may or may not coincide with yours, and to use this acceptance and understanding and knowledge to base your actions on and to move forward.