The Subjective Truth
The term “subjective-truth” used to seem like an oxymoron to me. It was just as laughable as hearing the terms “deafening silence” or “living dead”. But maybe that was me from 5 years ago.
Maybe now, I finally understand what shades of grey mean when talking about the truth. Earlier, everything had to be either black or white, either something was wrong, or it was right. For me, there was no in-between.
In my mind, if I perceived something as right, then to change my mind took a lot of convincing and facts and logic. This was me, right from when I was a little kid. The truth had to correspond with reality and the truth was factual. It was independent of all bias. But maybe that was my bias!!
Times and people change, and I am now at a place where I am ok with the truth being subjective in some situations. And so I explore and embrace the subjective truth. I am ok with my truth not being your truth and I no longer feel the need to convince you or bring you over to understanding why my truth is THE truth.
I know and acknowledge now that truth is subjective and is based on a perception, perspective, feelings, sensory ability, state of mind, and of course, opinions. And then, if you think about throwing bias into the mix then even the subjective truth gets a little murky.
But that is the truth, always a little murky, always better to have been viewed first from a 360-degree birds eye view and only then do you slowly, slowly zoom into the matter that hand. What's under the lens has so many contributing factors and so, before you make a judgement, it pays to have the complete picture. This “complete picture” is what makes the truth subjective.
Wisdom and understanding comes with maturity, and these days I endeavor examine every truth before making a judgement. Maybe person X told a lie for a reason, maybe person Y has some kind of bias that prevents her/him to seeing the situation the way it is, maybe person A was brought up to see things differently.
I don't know, and therefore in that moment, I cannot judge. And for me, that's what makes the truth subjective. In all honesty, I can say that for me, I see the truth the way I always have, it's just that I don't feel the need to convince others to see it my way. A kind of live and let live, maybe?
Do I still call people out on bullshit? Yeah..I sometimes do. But I am trying, really hard, if it has no impact on my life, to let things go. Baby steps still!!
