{Truth}

WARNING: I will (most likely) step on many toes in this post. If you and I have differing opinions and you feel like you need to blast me in the comments, the comment will (most likely) be removed. (I hold that right as the owner of this blog.) We can have an invigorating, philosophical discussion if you would like, but mutual respect, common courtesies and consideration of persons and people is requested. Thank you! :D

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     Back in 2014, when I was "vacationing" in Norway, I tried to keep up with my personal bible study time. The YouVersion bible app has a lot of different study plans and the one I was going  through then was The Truth Project Devition. Let me say, it was pretty amazing. The Day One devotion was about Pontius Pilate's questioning of Jesus (before Jesus' crucifixion)  and really focused on one question that Pilate asked of Jesus, "What is truth?"

"What is truth?" Pilate doesn't seem to have grasped the importance of his ironic question. Without the plumb line of Truth, we can know neither life, goodness, righteousness, nor justice. We can't even know ourselves. This is why Jesus, the King of all creation, came into the world to serve and bear witness to the Truth. What would it mean to live in a world without Truth? Have I pondered the immensity of Pilate's question? 

What would it be like to live in a world without truth?

    In a world where anything goes, finding a basis of truth wherein everyone, or at least the majority of people, agrees is not easy. I mean, there are so many arguments constantly about what truth actually is. "What is truth? Is there a such thing as absolute truth?" (etc. etc. etc.) If you don't already have a concrete set of ideas and beliefs, all of these arguments and conversations could easily sway you to whatever the "majority" rules. (Which is nebulous at best.)

     To look at the things objectively, to say that there is no absolute truth is claiming the statement to be THE absolute truth itself.   

 Easily understood, right? As if...


*sigh*

     But honestly, though, what is truth? 

     I would dare to wager that there is an absolute truth and that everyone is looking for it, be it consciously or subconsciously.

     I was talking to a hipster friend in a coffee shop (so stereotypically hipster, right?) but we were talking about the search for truth that all of humanity inevitably struggles through. So often, truth ends up subjective to whoever is searching. But how can you look for an absolute truth subjectively? Sure you may find shadows of said truth that way, but you'll never completely find it in its entirety. 

     I think it may be pretty understood knowledge that I am a Christian. (If you didn't know, I am.) Last year (2014), after coming home from Norway I fell into a tailspin regarding Christianity and what I believed. I didn't understand how an omnipotent God could let life in earth continue to progress the way it was/is/has always been. In my rational thinking, I couldn't accept certain aspects of Christianity with "blind faith." I...I just couldn't. No matter how hard I tried. And I "tried" all summer, but I gave up around mid-July. I decided I didn't want to be a Christian if I couldn't accept basic principles (because it went against my logic), and "became" a neo-paganistic, Greek mythology follower. I held on to my own intellect and my own rationality. I was a "strong thinker" and I was slowly killing myself. I became extremely depressed and I started cutting. I was suicidal most weeks and I detached from reality, without completely realising that I had.

     Around November/December, though, I decided to try to pull myself out of where I was and search for truth. The ever elusive truth of all existence. The meaning of life, the Absolute Truth of Humanity, everything. I wanted to find it and my soul was aching to know.

     In my searching, I processed through Christianity. What was it that made Christianity so different from other religions? What were the points in it's doctrine that I'd been "forced" to reject because of my rationality? Was I actually correct in my logical reasoning?

     Truth, as I've come to understand it is something completely outside of myself. You have to grasp it and internalise it before it can become your own. 

     The Greek and the Jewish have to different understandings of what truth is. The Greek, the philosophical mind of the ages, believe truth to be a static, empirical, unmoving entity outside of ourselves. Something you behold. Something you shape yourself around. Something we have to strive towards. Whereas the Hebrews, the religious pillar of history, see truth as something that we internalise. Something that reshapes us from the inside out. It shows itself in our actions, our decisions, etc. It's something fluid that grows and metamorphosises and changes as we develop in it. The reality is, truth is both fluid and unmoving. It's something we behold and something that grows. As we shape ourselves around the truth it reveals itself in our thoughts, our actions, our decisions, our reactions.

     In my searching for The Truth, I had to come to grips with the fact that if I didn't agree with truth, it wasn't the truth that was wrong, necessarily. If someone says that 2+2=4 and you don't agree with it, that doesn't change the factual truth of basic addition. It's the reasoning that needs to change, not the truth.

     There needs to be a plumb line to check "truth" or there is no way to look at it all objectively. There IS no absolute truth if there's nothing to cement it to. Absolute truth, and really truth in and of itself, should be unmoving. It should be something static, something that we have to approach and strive towards. It can't just come from ourselves and it shouldn't because if it did, it'd be forEVER subjective. Forever changing. 

     There may be shades to said truth that will be discovered just by human cognisance, but a shadow of a thing isn't the thing itself. I think in all of the different religions of the world, there is a shadow of Truth, but no matter how close it gets, it's not the entire truth itself.

6 Jesus answered, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him." ~ John 14:1-7

{Stereotypes}

So, I've been sitting here in my elephant leggings and hipster, coffee themed, oversized t-shirt while drinking my kombutcha (<- random bit of context for you) for a while thinking about The Pregnancy Project (a movie staring Alexa PenaVega; based on a true story). 

[A short synopsis for those who haven't heard of the movie, the book, or the history: A 17-year-old, attending a Washington state high-school, made her senior project a study in the treatment of pregnant teenagers in a shocking way. She stove to learn about family, friends and living beyond stereotypes.]

So, yeah, I've been thinking. Mostly about stereotypes. And whether or not they're an inherent part of society, especially a society like ours. I'm not one to just watch a movie and then write a post about how it affected me. I've done my research (and am continuing it as I'm writing this post) and this is what I've found: 

TIME.com posted an article on Ms. Gaby Rodriguez back in 2012. 

Last year, high school senior Gaby Rodriguez tucked a faux baby bump under her shirt and went to class. She attracted stares and the usual mean-spirited gossipy comments, all of which she jotted down. She then took her notes and parlayed them into a book, The Pregnancy Project, and a Lifetime movie of the same name that premieres on Jan. 28.

In her book, Rodriguez shares from the first time why she did what she did, and the explanation is a doozy: her mother, Juana, got pregnant at 14. Fourteen-year-olds are in eighth grade, for the most part. That's not even high school age. Long before she could secure a learner's permit, Rodriguez's mother was preparing to raise a child. 

"I wanted to do something that would impact my school and my community, and decided to start with something small, to bring an awareness of teen pregnancy," Rodriguez told Publisher's Weekly. "At a time in their lives when teens are becoming sexually active, they need to realise how the decisions they make now will ultimately affect their lives. And those teens who do become pregnant need to now that it's not the end of the road. They can find support for themselves and their child, and can move forward" 

Rodriguez is speaking from experience. Her mother married the 16-year-old father of her first baby and went on to have seven kids. Their three daughters (Rodriguez was born to a different father) all wound up as pregnant teens, and two of their sons got their girlfriends pregnant. All of a sudden, the reason for the book-and-movie deal is becoming clearer -  particularly since Hispanic teens like Rodriguez get pregnant more often than other minorities do. 

 (There are so many thoughts going through my head right now...!) 

It breaks my heart how many stereotypes there are not only about pregnant teens/teen pregnancy, but just stereotypes about Hispanics, African-American (or just darker-skinned people in general), people from the south, people from out west, people from the north, immigrants, Arabic, farmers, maids/janitors/cleaning crew people...I mean, gracious! Far be it from human beings to see a group of people they don't know well and NOT put some horrendous, superficial label on them, their family and anyone else like them.

You don't have to look hard before you find a PLETHORA of ridiculous, commonly-held stereotypes:

13 Myths, Misconceptions & Stereotypes about Mexican Americans

• Mexican Americans vote democrat
• Mexican Americans are Liberals
• Mexican Americans will vote for a political candidate if that candidate is Hispanic
• Mexican Americans are against border/illegal immigration control
• Mexican Americans speak and understand Spanish.
• Mexican Americans celebrate Cinco de Mayo and Mexican Independence Day.
• Mexican Americans are Catholic.
• Mexican Americans like to dance Salsa.
• Mexicans and Central Americans are the same thing.
• Mexican Americans are loved and supported by the citizens of Mexico
• Mexican Americans love Mexican Music.
• Mexican Americans love soccer.
• Mexican American women like to cook and clean.

(I looked up pictures of "black stereotypes" and most were too lewd to post...so I figured this would do...)

ALSO, I don't exactly remember WHAT I looked up but, I found these. basically a page of pictures/memes and every one of them is some kind of stereotype about someone or some people group.

I think you get my point. WHEREVER you look, the world is filed to the brim with stereotypes. Some of them might border on truth, and others may be So far out that we'll never quite know where they originated from. BUT either way, they're there AND, whether you like it or not, they are floating around in your subconscious (or even conscious) mind.

I realise this isn't a problem I'm gonna come CLOSE to fixing in one blog post. Like really...There are DOZENS if not THOUSANDS...well maybe not *thousands*, but a very good many posts out there addressing this issue already. This is a problem that is CENTURIES deep. It's ingrained in our DNA as humans, to set up and use stereotypes as a way of categorising people. The problem is that when you cling to stereotypes as a way of seeing people, you don't see the person as a living, breathing human being with emotions and depth and a consciousness.

"I have been completely erased. I have lost everything everyone used to think about me. That I'm smart. That I'm going to have this great big future. Nobody sees me anymore. They just see this [belly]." 

- Alexa PenaVega as Gaby Rodriguez in The Pregnancy Project

As an African-American, teenage girl, I often feel like people don't look past their preconceived ideas about African-American, teenage girls to see me. Often it doesn't bother me because I've come to the decision that if someone can't accept me for who I am as purely me, then I don't need to worry myself over them...but at the same time, it bothers me. I know I don't have it as bad as most, but it does bother me. Why is it that people are ok with not seeing people as people?

It's a lot to think about and I hope I've stirred some thoughts in your head. 

Ciao!