TRUTH

The story goes about Pontius Pilate, a Roman governor on assignment to a backwater  but troublesome province in the Middle East who was interrupted one day by the posse of the local holy men. He called this bunch of arse-licking hypocrites The Jerusalem Jihad. Their noses had been poked out of joint by an itinerant preacher who'd only been on the road about three years, but had already just been hailed by the hoi-polloi as the promised Messiah. Behaving more like our federal parliamentary opposition than a parliament of holy men, the priests wanted this upstart rubbed out, but they wanted Pilate to do it for them. At first, Pilate was annoyed at having his morning coffee break interrupted, but the strange preacher began to interest him greatly. Despite his shabby appearance, the man had an amazing aura of authority about him that was distinctly different from the usual bunch of Judge Judy rejects he normally had to deal with.

Pilate took him aside for a while. Away from the carping scribes and pharisees, the conversation got decidedly deep and meaningful. At one point Pilate said to him in some petulance, "You talk about Truth! OK smartypants, if you know so much about Truth, tell me what it is." The guy didn't say a word. He just looked into Pilate's eyes. Ponty felt like he was looking into the clearest mirror he had even seen. He saw himself, and became profoundly disturbed, but he couldn't look away.

Ponty was saved from eternity by his wife who sidled up behind him and whispered, "This guy spooks the bejeezus out of me. Get him out of my house.!" Pilate gratefully took his cue and washed his hands of any further involvement. Not much is known about Pilate after that moment. Maybe he became a holy man.

Pilate was an educated man. He really yearned to know what Truth is. He got his answer. In experience.

What I'm writing now is not Truth. It's not a lie either. I write - from my Truth - some of my theories about Truth. That is the closest I can get to communicating the truth of my experience.Truth is only found in personal experience. Nothing is Truth until it is experienced. Your experiences produce your truth; my experiences give rise to mine. Whose truth is The Truth? Both. And neither. When we put our two truths together, we still do not have all of it. The Truth reveals itself when all truths are embraced. Then there is silence. The page is blank. There is nothing to say. There is nothing to write. Truth is a wholly personal experience. The Truth is universal. I cannot tell you what it is, but I can tell you what it sounds like --

"Sh--sh--shhshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshshsh....................................."

The more we think about truth, the more we miss it.

Now a deeper silence falls.