Multi-Faceted Nature of "Truth"

Driving home earlier this week, Raina and I listened to the Indigo Girls and, specifically, to the song “Galileo.”  Although Raina had heard this song multiple times, she had not processed the lyrics before and she had questions about “Galileo’s head was on the block / his crime was looking up for truth.”  Raina clearly did not know the story of Galileo, so I told her a brief version:  Galileo made scientific discoveries that challenged the Catholic Church’s explanation of the world and solar system; in essence, he offered a contrary truth that went head-to-head with the Church’s truth, so the Church charged him with a crime, convicted him, and imprisoned him for the rest of his life.    

Oh, man, was this ever shocking to Raina.  She was especially upset because Galileo was scientifically correct and it was an incredible injustice to be punished for telling the truth.  We then had a long conversation about the multi-faceted nature of “truth.”  Conceptually, she struggled to move past a black-and-white definition of truth; she firmly believes that something is true and therefore the opposing view must be false.  We talked a lot about how truth is sometimes relative; someone believes something to be true and how, depending on how much power that person has, she may try to convince other people to believe in the same truth and/or to prevent other truths from gaining ground. 

I chose the simplistic example of pizza.  Raina says that pizza is the best meal in the world, so it is true for her.  I think pizza is the worst meal in the world, so that is true for me.  Both statements are relativistically true but neither is absolutely true.  But, since I’m an adult, I have more power and can probably push for my “truth” to reach more places (like my dinner table) than she can. 

 

Of course, this example doesn’t exactly mesh because Galileo’s truth was absolutely true, but it took lots of time before it became the commonly accepted truth.  Galileo didn’t have my daughter (whose immediate response was “But it’s science!  Science is right!”) to defend him yet. 

 

I was proud of her for making the conceptual link with her next statement: “This is like how white people thought they were better than black people.  They thought that was true but it really wasn’t.”  Absolutely, Raina.  She brought up Dr. Martin Luther King and I countered with the stories of Abraham Lincoln, Elijah Lovejoy, Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, and Susan B. Anthony.  We talked about how pushing for a different version of “truth” from the commonly accepted one requires a lot of courage and determination and, in many cases, the person will not be alive to see his/her truth become the commonly accepted one. 

 

Changing the status quo is so hard.  Raina noted that a lot of these people ended up being shot for pushing their version of the truth – an unfortunately accurate observation.  I didn’t know how to respond to that.  These individuals are heroes; the fact that they did NOT back down is a primary reason they are so inspirational.  I want my daughter to have the courage of her convictions in the face of adversity and outside pressure; to what extent she does that is her decision and the consequences she will face as a result are hers to bear. 

Raina’s follow-up question was even harder: “Mom, why do people shoot and kill each other?”  I thought for a long time before responding with a very honest “I don’t know, because I don’t understand shooting and killing or physically hurting someone else.  But my guess is that someone wants to hurt someone else so badly that they decide to shoot and kill them.”  I’m not satisfied with that explanation, but I don’t have a better one.  She brought up George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin and wanted me to explain why Zimmerman shot and killed Martin.  I didn’t have an explanation here either.  As a parent, I owe it to my daughter to show that I grapple with the same questions she has, and that over-simplifying with platitudes doesn’t really push for a better understanding of the situation.

We were both emotionally exhausted after this conversation.  Raina firmly believes in treating everyone fairly and equally and she, at core, does not understand cruelty or why someone would purposefully hurt another person.  She was rocked pretty hard by our talk; she cried a fair amount as she processed through it all.  I’m proud of her for asking the questions and for really participating in the conversation to think about answers.