By Neal Lemery
I keep learning the important lessons of life, again and again. My guardian angel must think I’m a difficult student–certainly a stubborn one.
A recent news story caught my eye, and after reading several reports in the media, I thought I was comfortable in my understanding. True to old habits, I jumped to some conclusions and was firm in my views. Yet, I kept reading and came across some other stories and opinions about that story. That new information,and those differing viewpoints, nudged me into taking another run at my previous conclusions and certain opinions, my version of “Truth.”
Maybe I didn’t have it right. Maybe, just maybe, my take on the story wasn’t as objective, wasn’t as close to the “search for truth” viewpoint that I pride myself of thinking in life. Maybe I was mistaken, misinformed, maybe not seeing the whole picture. Maybe my understanding was biased, slanted, yes, even corrupted by incomplete or faulty thinking and comprehension, and being manipulated by others. Maybe, just maybe, I was wrong.
Ego gets in the way in these situations, and old prejudices and thinking patterns can play a more influential role in my life than I care to admit. Looking at my faults, and my inaccurate and slanted thinking can be humbling, and can show me a side of myself that I find uncomfortable. I am partially a product of my Euro-American heritage, and my experiences as a lifelong rural Oregonian. I need to consider those biases in my thinking processes.
My unease in this process keeps teaching me the lessons of humility and truth-seeking, that I often don’t know the “right answer” and need to keep a skeptical and discerning attitude in a lot of things in life. That’s especially true when I’m not experiencing first hand, the situation in which I am making a judgment call and expressing my (biased) opinions.
In those situations, I’m relying on what other people experienced and thought about, and the information I’m gathering is almost always only a product of other people’s experiences, viewpoints, and prejudices. And, their judgments, and motives to give me a slanted, and often manipulated take on the story. I want to believe what I’m hearing is pure Truth, but it so often is not Truth, but corrupted, slanted, only partially informed opinion, presented to me with the motive of gaining my support and advancing their own political and economic agendas.
I should know better. But too often, I get sucked in, falling for the slanted story, the propaganda, the manipulation — intended or not. I need that grain of salt my aunt would talk about, that healthy dose of skepticism, that very often leads one down the healthier path of a second look, an exploration of what really happened, and viewpoints that come closer to the Pure Truth that I am searching for. And, often not finding, but I can be satisfied that my search, my discernment, my curiosity made a valiant attempt at finding out the whole picture, that all points of view were explored and considered, that I weighed the differing observations and opinions, that I came closer to discovering the Truth of the matter.
My aunt would always caution me to take another person’s observations and opinions “with a grain of salt.” She was a skeptic, and would do her own research, thinking through a situation, continually gathering hard data and differing perspectives. She was one of my rocks, the voice of sensibility and clear thinking. We could disagree, but these were rich and fruitful discussions. She challenged me to do my own research and to speak my own mind.
Some would call this critical thinking, a process of evaluating information and viewpoints, that looks for the whole picture, and all the factors that the observers and commentators relied on in coming to their views. And, that process includes my own experiences in life, my own unique background and biases, and certainly my own learning style and thought processes.
My latest wrestling with what is fact and what is fiction is a good lesson for me. I’ll be taking my own salt shaker with me when I’m thinking about an issue, and developing my own opinion.
Books: NEW book – Building Community: Rural Voices for Hope and Change; Finding My Muse on Main Street, Homegrown Tomatoes, and Mentoring Boys to Men