Today is Monday, October 8th, 2018. This past week was the finale, you could say, of what feels like a long battle between Christine Ford and Brett Kavanaugh, ending in Kavanaugh being confirmed on the Supreme Court Justice. In case you might not be aware of the whole situation, I will explain it very briefly, as I don’t want to make this post overly political. So here’s the short version, which I want to keep as unbiased as possible.
Brett Kavanaugh is the recent nomination of President Trump to replace the open position on the Supreme Court Justice, following the retirement of Anthony Kennedy. It was speculated that he would be an easy vote to confirm his seat on the Supreme Court Justice due to the Republican majority. In, what seems to be very convenient timing, Christine Ford brought up allegations of Kavanaugh that he allegedly sexually assaulted her more than 30 years ago when they were in college, and when looking at the evidence, it does seem credible he could have done so. Long story short, this caused a very polarized divide in the country leading up to a federal investigation, a hearing, and well, for a lack of better words, something that escalated way too quickly.
The reason I bring this up is that throughout the whole ordeal, with one side blaming the other, and the other denying each other’s accusations, there seemed to be something common in both of their stories. They weren’t telling the whole truth. It really didn’t take much for someone to figure this out. Ford’s accusations seemed to be inconsistent at times either with her own story, or with the accounts of others. But, in the same way, Kavanaugh seemed to be noticeably ambiguous and vague, and at times seemed to avoid particular questions, or and when he did address a question, he did not directly answer the questions that were being asked. This is what I think the majority of the population missed when they decided to take the side of either Ford or Kavanaugh.
Why is this important? Because in a world where we acknowledge there is a lot of pain and suffering, and at times, there seems to be absolutely nothing we can do about it, we do have the ability to do one thing. Tell the Truth, especially when it’s hard.
I think I’ll have to write another post on this, as this will get far too long, but I want to be sure to expand on one point in particular.
I want to break down the point I made just a few sentences back, the realization that our strongest tool against the suffering of the world is the truth. The truth seems to be one of the highest, if not already the highest value held in almost every religion, especially Christianity. Ironically, I think that atheists could actually benefit the most from this realization. That’s a discussion for another time.
So why is truth our greatest tool?
The truth is the key to unlocking the meaning in your life, and meaning is the only way to find true fulfillment. A strong statement to make, right? You might even be asking what do I mean by this? So let’s break it down.
Meaning. What does your life mean? Like, what is the meaning in your life? And seriously, ask yourself that, because life is hard. It’s brutal. It’s merciless and unfair. It’s weird how when everything seems to be going right in our lives, out of nowhere, tragedy finds its way in. If you haven’t gone through something that’s brought you to the point of questioning your existence, whether or not if it’s all worth it, then you will. And I don’t mean that in a pessimistic sense. I’m simply trying to prepare you, to inform you that during those times, it’s critical you know what your life means. And if you’ve already been to the point of what feels like hell and were able to come out of it, then hopefully what I’m about to say is something you can relate to.
I’ve been to a dark point in my life. I’m sure others have been to places far darker than I have, but in that time, I truly felt that the world was not a kind place. I wasn’t sure if it was the place I wanted to be part of anymore. It felt like I was alone, and not in the same way you might feel like when you’re eating out alone and it feels like everyone is staring at you. The alone I felt was like this. Think as if you went to a new country, where the people spoke a language you don’t understand, and you’re trying to get home. The people around you can see you’re in trouble, and they might even try to help you, but you don’t know what they’re saying, and they don’t know what you’re saying either. You try, and try to talk, but then they realize they can’t help you, so they stop caring. And that’s exactly how I felt. People could see I was hurting, and there were those who tried to help, but the more they tried, the more frustrated they got. It wasn’t that I couldn’t see that they were trying to help. It was just, they had no idea how. And in the end, they stopped caring.
So how do we overcome this?
We need to find the meaning in our life.
Well, what if you don’t know where to start? How can we suddenly find the meaning in our life? And, to be honest, we really can’t, at least not quickly, especially if we’ve never tried.
Again, where do we start?
And, I would say the first thing to do if you have no idea where to start is to be honest with yourself. Like, really be honest with yourself. Everything you do, every thought in your head, ask yourself, is this true? Do I believe this? And at first, after you’ve gotten rid of all the lies in your head, you might realize you don’t know anything, and that’s okay. But do this. Whenever you speak, only speak what you think is true, and true in a way that you actually believe it, not what someone else has told you. You might find out you’re wrong at times, and again, that’s okay. Let people correct you when you believe you need to be corrected. You’ll find out that when you do this, especially for a long time, that no matter what anyone says, you’ll never have to fundamentally question your beliefs, and question them in a way that makes you question your entire life, because once you discover your life is a lie, that can wreck you. Like when you discover your partner is cheating on you, you realize the past 6 months, 5 years, 20 years, it could all be a lie. And that isn’t something someone can just ignore.
Once you’ve only allowed yourself to believe what is true, then you may ask yourself, what does my life mean? And once you’ve found out what you’re life really means, that’s when you’ve found the fulfillment in your life. But again, this is a hard thing to do, so don’t take it lightly. The only advice I have is this:
Tell the Truth, especially when it’s hard.
Thanks for reading.
Cory von Seggern
New Age Lessons 