Each week, a new topic is pulled randomly from the vessel of ideas on the altar in the center of the circle. Anyone can put any thought into the vessel, written on a slip of paper. And the end of each session, the topic for next week is discovered by the fingers reaching blindly into the jar. Last Sunday the discovery was:

 

What is "TRUE"?

     TRUE comes from TREE, suggesting solidness and being rooted in reality, like a tree standing firm.  Trustworthy, Precise, Faithful, Accurate, Reliable. True.
     Such a very helpful term. It seems to me to be one of the MOST important ideas in a society that shares. To understand that something is True seems frequently vital.
     Interestingly, nowadays I am increasingly being encouraged to doubt whether things are "True". Fake reality through photoshop, AI, mass media mega-ownership, 3-letter agency lying, it goes on and on. 
     And more and more the idea of "Personal Truth" appears in our culture, adjusting the meaning toward Authentic and Sincere, "My truth is true for me", making TRUE a subjective thing that cannot be argued against because "everyone has their own truth".
     I'm remembering after the 9-11 events, noticing that investigators were being derided with a new pejorative term, "Truthers". Then propagandists inserted "Truthiness" into their scripts toward giving truth-seeking a kookie crazy disrespectful and foolish appearance. "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain", says the Wizard of Oz through the media microphone. 
     But TRUE is not a meaningless whim, it is something real and important. I need to keep TRUE right here in my thinking tool-kit and not let it disappear into the cultural flurry. 
     The idea of "Personal Truth" though, is also important, expressing and sharing one’s personal experience of reality, very helpful information. But maybe we need a different word for that. 
 

The Circle Is Open!

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Seven Daughs