i was driving around San Diego on my way home from lunch with one of my all-time best friends Pete Toennies when i started to thinking about truth. The thought was initiated during lunch when Pete and i discussed the many sides of politics passing each other without even knowing the other guy was going the other way.

Pete and i are about as different as you can get in most ways. Pete is 6’6″ in incredible shape; he was an All-American swimmer at St. Johns, a UDT and SEAL officer, retiring as a captain. He has attained financial success through hard work in buying houses, renovating them by himself, renting them out and then doing the same again and again until he ended up with two apartment complexes, one of which he sold for a tidy sum about a dozen years ago. His financial acumen is on spot. He is a health nut, swims three nights a week, works out every day, and practices golf every day he’s not playing. He is a successful leader and what i would like to label an independently thinking conservative.

i am an enigma. i am about as short as Pete is tall. i work out occasionally and have never had much interest in finances. i golf with some weird belief i will get better through positive thinking. That ain’t happening. i am, in my niece’s terms, a putterer, and in my older daughter’s term, a contrarian.

Not only do Pete and i get along; we understand each other and like each other even more because we understand. So after our delightful lunch that we had not done in quite a while, i thought about our discussions. i thought about “truth” and tonight, i wrote this poem (sic);

truth

what is truth?
is it your truth? their truth? my truth?
is your truth better than their truth?
i already know you think your truth
is better than my truth;
after all, your truth
is based on facts;
of course, they are your facts
based on your truth,
and
their truth is based on facts;
of course, they are their facts,
and
lord knows,
you or they can’t ever, ever
consider their or your facts worth a damn
because they conflict
with your or their truths;
and
you and they aren’t ever gonna consider
talking to each other
to understand the difference
and
come up with a truthful solution;
while my truth lies in some long abandoned
cubby hole of reasoning
because
my truth doesn’t rely on facts
or
even truth;
my truth, i hope,
relies on compassion; equality/ freedom in their purest form, understanding,
and
what my folks taught me
about doing what’s right,
and
although i am not a practicing formal Christian,
i think that guy Jesus
pretty much nailed it
when he reportedly said
“do unto others as you would have them do unto you,”
and
“he who is without guilt cast the first stone;”
but
that is another truth entirely,
which most of the folks in this world
just ain’t gonna deal with,
and
i look around to watch all of those stones flying in the air
and
wonder
will we ever get to truth?
right now, i am not real hopeful.

Bonita, California
March 1, 20-17