Tissues Behind Issues, Part 2

September 12, 2010

Tissues Behind Issues, Part 2

There are things I meant to say in yesterday’s writing that inspired it but did not bubble up to the inky surface in time to make it onto my digital tablet. These are those thoughts.

First, there are universal truths; truths that wend their way through all beings, and that, at face value, seem almost simple. Love one another. Do good. Be kind. No one religion or faith has the corner on that market. But none of these become capital “T” truths without first being forged through complexity and, perhaps, hardship.

I don’t really begin to Love Others until I start to care for the person who drives me cuckoo. I don’t really begin to Do Good until I do good under the veil of darkness, alone and tempted to do otherwise. And I am not Kind until I can put aside the desire to use others for my own gain, even when they may benefit from my words or actions.

Essentially, I cannot own any truths until I attach them, in practice, to others. Preferably, others who do not vote like or look like or sound like or live like me. Ideally, people who just plain don’t like me.

It’s quite possible, then, that, at age 48, there is not a lot of Truth in my life. But that doesn’t mean I quit looking. And listening.

So, what happens when I begin to look and listen? I find that capital “T” truth in a person like “Jose.” That’s what I meant when I said I need tissue behind the issues. Too often, when I scan the morning’s headlines, I am confronted—affronted, really—by people who scream too much, hurt too much, insist too much. Invariably, it seems that they have forgotten to find the human tissue behind their issues, instead giving themselves over to platitudes and theories, while people with real faces, real lives, are hurt by their hatred.

A truth that cannot stand up to honest interaction with another being is not much of a truth after all. Much like a god who requires constant defending or a border that requires taller fences and additional armed forces or an idea that requires endless amendments. A truth that has been forged outside of relationships is nothing more than a floppy, self-conscious half thought. It has not been tested in the fires.

When my students write opinions, I tell them to write so well that even those with whom they disagree will find themselves nodding in agreement at some point or another.

Ultimately, we must be willing to test our theories in the realm of everyday living. We must be willing to turn our backs on arguments that have left out the element of human interaction, the complexity of life itself. We must be willing to seek out human tissue when an issue comes knocking. And then we must be willing to give ourselves over to it, to turn around and change our minds and our lives, to turn the small “t” into a capital one.