Something to Think About

"I constantly get out of my comfort zone. Looking cool is the easiest way to mediocrity. The coolest guy in my high school ended up working at a car wash. Once you push yourself into something new, and whole new world of opportunities opens up. But you might get hurt. In fact you WILL get hurt. But amazingly when you heal-- you are somewhere youve never been." - Terry Crews

Truth

I want you to think. I mean really think about one thing. I want you to ask yourself, "What is truth?"

Merriam-Webster will tell you that truth is: sincerity in action and character; the state of being the case; the body of real events, things, and facts; the property of being in accord with reality.  This defines truth, but it doesn't tell you what it actually is.  Let's ask another source about truth.

In Metaphysics, Aristotle and Plato said, "p is true if and only if p corresponds to a fact." Closer than Webster, but still not quite right. A fact is generally considered something that is true, which causes the original Greek to become recursive, and therefore not helpful.  Let's take a look at a different interpretation.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, "Truth or truthfulness is the virtue which consists in showing oneself true in deeds and truthful in words, and guarding against duplicity, dissimulation, and hypocrisy."  Again, we find another circular definition about truth.

Now, my thoughts about all this. Truth is frequently defined vaguely or circularly because it is actually a hard concept to grasp. I know that I don't fully understand it, but I best know what it means to me from a song in the musical Jesus Christ, Superstar. In the trial before Pilate, Jesus is asked, "But what is truth, is it unchanging law? We both have truths, are mine the same as yours?"  And that one line got me thinking really hard about truth. And my current conclusion is that no one can tell you what is true. You have to go out and experience truth. I can't tell you what that means. You need to find it for yourself. People will discover their own truth in their own way and place. I won't tell you where I found my truth, as I believe that finding it is one of the most personal and private experiences that anyone will ever have. It is not something to be taken lightly.

So with that, I challenge you: go out and find your truth. Do it often enough, and you might find that even something as solid as truth can change. Live your life, and discover your truth.

English

Today I was called a grammar Nazi, which got me thinking about why I am a stickler about grammar and spelling. And I finally discovered that I want English to go back to being a beautiful language. Think about it, English used to be a graceful, thought-provoking language, for example, in almost all of Shakespeare's works (not just his plays, but his poems as well) the language flows, and smoothly transitions among ideas. 

"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages." (As You Like It)

This one quote is a wonderful example of my point. Poetry notwithstanding, this is basically how the common man spoke in that era. Nowadays, this beauty is corrupted by a conglomeration of abbreviations, contractions, and ignorant people abusing the grammar of our language

I take a stand for English because if I don't, then no one will protect our language. I fear that eventually, English will devolve into pidgin; so please, for the love of English, stop killing our language!