FACTS

Facts are observable, objective pieces of evidence.

If I find a piece of broken pottery I have a piece of something, but I don’t have the entire artifact nor a complete understanding of the artifact from whence it came. We could say that the complete artifact is a truth but the shard is a fact. If I find many pieces of shard and begin to put them together, I start to gain an understanding of what the artifact truly looks like. However, whether or not these pieces give me a complete picture of the truth is determined by the way I put them together. So, even with all of the “facts” in front of me, because of my limited knowledge of how they go together, I may still not have an understanding of the “truth.”

TRUTH

Truth can’t always be proven with facts.

Facts are objective evidences in front of you. Sometimes facts are circumstantial and therefore, cannot be absolutely true. Sometimes, truth lies in the unprovable areas between the facts, before the facts and behind the facts.

Truth exists with or without the presence and understanding of facts. In that way, truth supersedes facts.

The discovery of new facts can change our perception of truth, but it does not change the actual truth itself. Truth is true whether we comprehend it or not, whether we can prove it or not.

OPINIONS

Opinions, on the other hand, are neither truths nor facts, although they may or may not be based on both. Opinions are subjective preferences. “Ice cream tastes good,” is an opinion.

IN CONTEXT

It is a fact that there are billions of stars in the universe. We can look up and see that evidence right in front of us, but the truth as to how they got there is still not fully known. People have speculated, myths have been created, legends handed down, stories of their creation abound, some have researched facts (which change consistently as our ability to understand and observe them change) and discussed it for centuries, but the entire, detailed truth of the process is still based on the opinions of the storytellers, astronomers, religious leaders, etc.

Another example might be that it is a fact that all life dies, but the truth of what happens after that point has not yet been proven, although everybody has an opinion. If we could bring someone back from the dead and ask them they could tell us, and indeed, hundreds of such accounts have happened. Still, there are those who completely question the validity of their stories, because although they can prove that they died, they can’t prove that they actually went somewhere and saw something. I have an opinion about that.

My opinion is that we presently cannot accurately measure spiritual, eternal, energy with temporal, physical devices, so therefore the truth about what happened can’t be proven because it supersedes our ability to observe the facts and measure the evidence.

WHAT IS NORMAL?

Being normal is not the same thing as being average. Average is what most people are. Normal is what is healthy for them to be.

For example, the average American is overweight but that’s not normal.

Average people live life at a level of mediocrity, not wanting to stand out or rock the boat. They may sacrifice freedom for the sake of convenience and acceptance. They may not do anything “bad” with their lives. They just don’t do anything significant. They remain average.

They may go along with whatever authorities, celebrities, experts or those with political or social clout tell them because they had rather live in a state of totalitarian stupidity than do the normal thing, which is to question “why” they are being told to do things and to question the norms of society than to risk being ostracized, black-balled, ridiculed, etc. It is normal to want to be accepted and liked, but it is also normal to want to be free and to think for yourself, to choose your own preferences in life.

Every movement, every great invention, every great novel, every breakthrough in the arts or in spirituality has come through a person that was not average in their culture; they have come from those who buck the system, the disturbing elements of humanity.

It is indeed those who have bucked the system, the mediocrity of their day, that have made the greatest impact on the world, such as Jesus, Gandhi, Plato, Mother Teresa, William Wallace, Tecumseh, Crazy Horse, Joan of Arc, Martin Luther, Mary Shelley, Madame Curie, Anne Sullivan, Helen Keller, Nathaniel Greene, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Ernest Hemingway, Orville and Wilbur Wright, Clara Barton, Mary Breckinridge, George Washington Carver, Booker T. Washington, Jim Thorpe, Maria Tallchief, and the list goes on. Every one of these people went against the culturally accepted, even the politically correct norm of their day. They were all normal human beings, but none of them were just average. All of them were willing to give up personal comfort for internal convictions, not beliefs. Beliefs change as new facts arise, new pieces of shard, but internal convictions, eternal truths, do not change.

Normal people rise above average and change the world. Normal people expand the universe.

IN CONCLUSION

I may not have all the facts straight, but I do seek truth. It may not be the average thing to do, but it is normal. It is healthy, maybe not physically, because as Jesus, Joan of Arc and many others found out, it can get you killed, but I had rather die for my convictions of truth than live a lie of convenience. Jesus asked this question, “What does it profit a person to gain the whole world and lose his/her own soul?” It is normal to want to live a long, abundant, blessed and prosperous life, so long as we don’t have to give up our own identity, the I AM, inside of us to maintain it. We should never sell out who we are to become who someone else wants us to be. Yes, you can be blessed and live a good life, but there comes a moment when you have to put your spiritual pathway above your temporary physical comfort. I quote Tecumseh, an above average normal man who lived and died for his truth, regardless of the facts.

“So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people. Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide. Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, even a stranger, when in a lonely place. Show respect to all people and grovel to none. When you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself. Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision. When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.”

Tecumseh