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Health & Fitness

Truth, the First Victim

Examination of truth in light of the Weiner weenie worries.

"Jesus answered, 'You say I am a king.  For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.'"

"Pilate said to him, 'What is truth?'" (JN 18:37b-38a)

I have no desire to discuss religion or theology. I selected this quote from the Bible as I believe it is a familiar one to many people.

Pilate, the Roman governor, seems skeptical. His response is both a retort and a rhetorical question: a question asked not expecting an answer.

For the religious, truth has a foundation in the written sacred texts. Yet all of these texts require interpretation. This applies to all religions. Rarely is it accepted that an individual can understand a sacred text without some religious training.

Yet, in a secular society like ours, where there are people with varied religious  denominations, we move away from a reliance on a religious institution as the purveyor of truth. In this way, we rely on what we accept as ‘uninspired’ works to turn to for facts and truth. In this effort, there are mathematical, legal, scientific, medical and other experts who we rely on to provide the concrete information which we rely on for sanity.

Thus there are facts and ideas which cannot be questioned as to their veracity. For example, 23 x 3 = 69 no matter where we are with regard to religious affiliation. The first law of physics: Matter can neither be created or destroyed. The leg bone is connected to the knee bone. Walking is defined as an action performed in an upright position standing on one’s feet lifting one foot at a time ahead of the other to move from one location to the other.

Walking is walking until one is jogging or running. Yet we know when one is walking vs jogging. This difference comes from experience, both through actual walking and observing others.

This is a simple example of many concepts we learn in life. One such concept most families try to instill in their children is to always tell the truth. In our culture telling the truth is said to be highly valued. Yet, as humans, we lie all the time.

When we were children, our parents asked us what we were doing. The answer: "Nothing." Of course we were doing something, which we were not supposed to be doing. Yet this communication is fairly acceptable in most homes.

We get stopped by a police officer for speeding. Of course we weren’t speeding. Yet, we were in fact speeding but never admit it to the police. Well, it can be a problem for your appeal if you admit to it and want to appeal it later.

How truthful are we or can we be with our families? Our children always asking questions. How does the moon stay up in the sky? Where do babies come from? Why do girls have breasts and I (a boy) don’t? Did you ever smoke cigarettes, drink when you were in high school, smoke pot? Are we always truthful about these answers?

Then we have the embarrassing situation with politicians. Did President Obama lie on the campaign trail that he would undo the patriot act or did he forget when he got to office? Did he mean to do it but found it impossible to change it once he got into office?

Of course, the zeitgeist is filled today with Congressman Weiner and the long ten days of our national madness. First off: what is the issue with sending a picture of one’s penis when it is covered in appropriate underwear? Sensational maybe, but this is not pornography. As many men have joked, if we had a penis that size maybe we would send pictures of it around.

The woman he sent it to seems unfazed. In fact all six that we know so far that have reported the dummy’s pictures sent to them seem unconcerned for themselves. Some other women have called the pictures disgusting. I must have a high threshold for disgusting, as they seemed odd perhaps but not something to make me sick to my stomach.

What is the problem? The problem lies in the total lack of truth in anything the Congressman said for these ignoble 10 days when this subject is all that could be found on TV talk shows, all news media including front page headlines in the New York Times.

Day after day, night after night until even now after the apology has been made, the insistence that he will remain in office and let his constituents decide whether he should keep his job or not we are still hearing about this.

Now, the guy has been married almost one whole year. What were they chatting about for the time they’ve know each other? Did she tell him it was ok to keep twittering his odd or suggestive pictures around the internet? Did he ask? Did he tell her the truth, that noble chivalric duty to be true to his love and maintain his honor in his love for his troth?

We cannot bemoan all this beguilement. We have followed it from the first fib, the first effort to deceive our loved ones, we’ve known of possibilities of getting caught in one of these seemingly innocent falsifications. What s/he doesn’t know about the affairs, the gambling, the office pool, the gossip around the proverbial water cooler at the office. We hear character smears and we let them slide because--what does it really matter? People talk about each other all the time.

Then to repeat Pilate’s question: what is truth? Is it what we said so firmly yesterday even though we knew it wasn’t true? Is it possible to always tell the truth? The old joke: The wife asks the husband, do these pants make me look fat? Does she want to know the truth or hear what she wants to hear even though inside she knows its a lie? "No, of course not honey, you look great."  (They’re already an hour late for the party...)

Or would she be happier to have heard the truth and avoided the inevitable mention by some of her ‘best friends’ --those pants make you look fat, honey.

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