Facts and truths

*Chapter 10 of my upcoming novel, Resurrection, is posted here. Gosh, people struggle so hard to understand that which does not make sense to them. It's a rare person that can leap from faith. On our YouTube channel, I do my best to share with folks my experiences with what I hear, with what we hear, as a company. It's not made up. It's genuine, repeatable, demonstrable. And yet, when our observations do not line up with the observations of others—when their experiences or lack of experiences collide with our own—the often heard meme is that we must be wrong, lying or daft. If it does not fit it seems it cannot exist. Which is why I do my best to help people understand that what I offer is my personal experience. Still, conflicting facts raise small hairs on the backs of our neck. The cries that we violate truth sometimes rise to the level of pitchforks, tar, and feathers. Where we get in trouble is when we confuse facts with truth. It may be a fact that you did not hear this or that, but that does not then make for universal truth. This very phenomenon is what's dividing us today because of media's instant access to uncurated opinions presented as facts/truth. An experience is a valid fact but not necessarily truth. It is a fact (and it is true) you watched a magician saw a woman in half. It is not a fact, nor is it true, she's now two halves. Here's my suggestion. If you have an opinion of how the world works, give us the courtesy to qualify it using terminology such as "seems to me", or "I've not tried it, but…", or "in my experience". These terms really help curate and authenticate our "facts". Let's make sure we don't mix up the words fact and truth.