THE TRUTH


Friend, though thy soul should burn thee,
yet be still
Thoughts were not meant for strife,
nor tongues for swords,
He that sees clear
is gentlest of his words,
And that's not truth
that hath the heart to kill.
The whole world's thought
shall not one truth fulfil.
Dull in our age, and passionate in youth,
No mind of man hath found the perfect truth,
Nor shalt thou find it;
therefore, friend, be still.

Watch and be still,
nor hearken to the fool,
The babbler of consistency and rule:
Wisest is he, who, never quite secure,
Changes his thoughts for better
day by day:
To-morrow some new light
will shine, be sure,
And thou shalt see thy thought
another way.

--Archibald Lampman

Wisest is he, who, never quite secure,
Changes his thoughts for better
day by day:
To-morrow some new light
will shine, be sure,
And thou shalt see thy thought
another way.

I love this part at the end. I make no claims as to my degree of wisdom, but it does describe exactly what I ALLOWED myself to do once I left the church. It was very liberating. And I believe it WILL make me wiser.

Thank you, Morgana, for the lovely poem! The poem itself is Truth. I was a BIC Mormon, and all those years, I studied the scriptures in search of Truth. Fortunately, I studied other things, too, had great teachers and great schools, and spent a lot of time in the libraries. Life, jobs, children, and the cult kept me busy, but as I got into my mid-thirties, I became very disappointed in myself. I had grown, matured, and realized most of my dreams, by then, but I was not any wiser. I expected wisdom to come with middle age. Something was very wrong. I was still being treated like a child, expected to follow orders, without question. I was not required to make decisions in my own life. Anyway, I felt that I needed more information, in order to make adult decisions. For example, all of the cult leaders, in separate conversations over the years, advised me to give up trying to get a temple divorce, and stay sealed to my abusive ex, so my children would be sealed to me, and we would be together forever. The catch was, we all would still be sealed to my ex, too, plus his two other temple wives. There were other decisions, too, regarding tithing, finances, my illness.

So, I got more information! Information leads to the Truth. Some information was false, but more of it was the truth. I read different perspectives, and considered what degrees and credentials the authors had earned. I learned a little about how the authors lived their lives, what their values were, etc. Slowly, my mind started organizing constructs--everybody's brain organizes information--that's how the brain works. Finally, facts started forming a pattern, like a jigsaw puzzle, and things started making sense, at last! I began using my own common sense and life experiences as a measure, and the Truth was never contradictory to what had always worked for me. Other things made no sense, and some things were proven to be outright lies, like Joseph Smith's church. I always had a distaste for falseness, and that was why I could never comply to Mormonism, in my heart.

My children had more intuition and better gut instincts than I had as their parent, because I had been brainwashed for a lifetime, and they had not. My children were the ones who led me out of the cult. Listen to what children have to say!

"The babbler of consistency and rule:" That was me in my thirties.

"Wisest is he, who, never quite secure,
Changes his thoughts for better
day by day:" That was my children, as they were allowed to learn and think freely in school and at home (one thing I did right).

"Watch and be still." is good advice, but you must watch, you must gather information.

Whoever said "The Truth hurts." was a liar. We can "be still" and relax, because truth makes life better. The truth is necessary for us to survive!

A bumper sticker read:

"Silence is better than BULLSHIT!"

I have reflected upon this often when I recall what was served up in the days that I went to church.