The truth
I attended a talk last night by Jeannette Walls who is the author of the book and the subsequent movie The Glass Castle. For those who have not seen the movie or read the book it is the true story of her life with a brilliant alcoholic father, an artist mother who had little interest or time for parenting, and siblings. Life with this family meant hunger, constant moving, and kids raising themselves and each other and all the predictable unpredictability of an alcoholic family. For years Ms. Walls pursued a successful journalist career while running from her past, which she found shameful. Once she quit running and wrote the book she was able to reclaim many of the gifts of this family including the gifts of art, dreams, and acceptance. Ms. Walls is very clear that her story is her truth and not that of her mother, dad, or her siblings.
This morning I had an email from someone I recommended watch a particular movie to help him get in touch with the anger and grief about the extreme abuse he suffered at the hands of his father. Recently he and his wife watched another movie, which accomplished the same purpose as I had hoped the original recommendation, might. He was able to share his anger with his father in a letter, which he will take to the graveyard and read to his dad.
Many academic institutions announce over their entrance doorway that “The Truth Will Set You Free”. Jesus is reported by John to have said, “The truth shall set you free.”
As the United States gets ready to impose new tariffs on goods from China and some other countries, there are many opinions on the truth or falsity of the claims of what this will or will not accomplish.
Often parents, including my own, tell their children, “Just tell me the truth.” Children often figure out that in fact their parents do not want their truth. They want the truth, which will allow them to feel comfortable as parents.
During the time that I have been on this life journey many of the truths of science have changed. Those truths are ever evolving as we humans understand more pieces of the magic of how this universe functions.
All these are good reminders for me that I only can share my truth of the moment. The truth for Jeannette Walls is that as long as she denied or ran from her own history she was always trying to prove her worth. Shame of who we are, where he came from or what we have done leaves us feeling frightened and less than. When one hides that pain we also hide the joys of life. It does seem as if all of our passion -love, hate, joy, sadness, pain, grief, and excitement – resides in the same place. When we hide one we hide them all.
Each of us needs to own and speak our truth without confusing it with THE TRUTH. As Ms. Walls seemed to be suggesting it is very important that one not label it as good, bad, right, wrong, shameful, or any other labels. It is just our truth. Certainly there are aspects of her childhood which no educator or child psychologist would recommend but there were also gifts of that childhood which she could not fully acknowledge until she embraced her past and, thus, her truths. One Christmas her father took she and her siblings outside and gave them each a star for Christmas. She wanted a Venus, a planet, and he gave her that. Her truth once she let go of the shame was “He gave me Venus.”
Written March 23, 2018
I attended a talk last night by Jeannette Walls who is the author of the book and the subsequent movie The Glass Castle. For those who have not seen the movie or read the book it is the true story of her life with a brilliant alcoholic father, an artist mother who had little interest or time for parenting, and siblings. Life with this family meant hunger, constant moving, and kids raising themselves and each other and all the predictable unpredictability of an alcoholic family. For years Ms. Walls pursued a successful journalist career while running from her past, which she found shameful. Once she quit running and wrote the book she was able to reclaim many of the gifts of this family including the gifts of art, dreams, and acceptance. Ms. Walls is very clear that her story is her truth and not that of her mother, dad, or her siblings.
This morning I had an email from someone I recommended watch a particular movie to help him get in touch with the anger and grief about the extreme abuse he suffered at the hands of his father. Recently he and his wife watched another movie, which accomplished the same purpose as I had hoped the original recommendation, might. He was able to share his anger with his father in a letter, which he will take to the graveyard and read to his dad.
Many academic institutions announce over their entrance doorway that “The Truth Will Set You Free”. Jesus is reported by John to have said, “The truth shall set you free.”
As the United States gets ready to impose new tariffs on goods from China and some other countries, there are many opinions on the truth or falsity of the claims of what this will or will not accomplish.
Often parents, including my own, tell their children, “Just tell me the truth.” Children often figure out that in fact their parents do not want their truth. They want the truth, which will allow them to feel comfortable as parents.
During the time that I have been on this life journey many of the truths of science have changed. Those truths are ever evolving as we humans understand more pieces of the magic of how this universe functions.
All these are good reminders for me that I only can share my truth of the moment. The truth for Jeannette Walls is that as long as she denied or ran from her own history she was always trying to prove her worth. Shame of who we are, where he came from or what we have done leaves us feeling frightened and less than. When one hides that pain we also hide the joys of life. It does seem as if all of our passion -love, hate, joy, sadness, pain, grief, and excitement – resides in the same place. When we hide one we hide them all.
Each of us needs to own and speak our truth without confusing it with THE TRUTH. As Ms. Walls seemed to be suggesting it is very important that one not label it as good, bad, right, wrong, shameful, or any other labels. It is just our truth. Certainly there are aspects of her childhood which no educator or child psychologist would recommend but there were also gifts of that childhood which she could not fully acknowledge until she embraced her past and, thus, her truths. One Christmas her father took she and her siblings outside and gave them each a star for Christmas. She wanted a Venus, a planet, and he gave her that. Her truth once she let go of the shame was “He gave me Venus.”
Written March 23, 2018
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