josh
My first decade of life spanned three continents. Frequent relocation and exposure to foreign ideas exacerbated my insecurities. I spent the next two decades searching for absolute truth. I found uncertainty. I looked for answers but saw questions.
After three University degrees, hundreds of books, thousands of videos, and more than three decades of life, certainty remains illusive. Life’s surprises disturb and delight me. And deliberating truth reminds me to treat these experiences and mysteries as more than enough.
To deliberate truth is to think about reality. Deliberating is caring. Truth is what is. So those who deliberate truth consider what it is. Deliberating truth is being and attending with/to each other and life. It is the words: who, what, when, where, why, and how. Deliberating truth is living. It’s life.
Life dies, but life that lives together, dies slower. Life disagrees, but life that agrees to disagree, lives together. Life that refuses to disagree, isolates itself, and life dies faster in isolation. Life that refuses to disagree dies more quickly than life that agrees to disagree.
Health is quantity and quality of life. Longevity is only healthy in the absence of perpetual suffering. Perpetual suffering is unremitting pleasure or unrelenting pain. Quality of life balances pleasure with pain. Neither pain or pleasure can dominate a life. One must learn to accept them.
Agreement feels good, and disagreement hurts. Life is better when neither dominates. To deliberate truth is to seek a balance between agreement and disagreement.
One can seek a balance of agreement within family, friends, community, and the world. But balance starts within. Deliberating truth involves testing your thoughts and beliefs with your actions before looking to the thoughts, beliefs, and actions of others.
The world will not save you. Others cannot live for you. You must live your life and learn to save yourself. Ask questions. Observe your thoughts. Track your actions. What are they telling you?
Do not delay your self-observation and deliberation. We all have limited time to ask, attend, & act.
– Josh
Deliberating Truth 