MenoAZering; V=Veritas

For April, I'm participating in #BlogchatterA2Z, and you will find original images created by me and some ramblings to go with them. I will capitalise words that begin with the featured letter (on first use only). Let me know what you think of the pics, words, or both in the comments! For more of this madness, you can visit Blogchatter.

VINCIT Omnia VERITAS...  truth conquers all things. But it is such a numinous thing, really. Truth is only as static as the knowledge behind it. To a child, Santa Claus is the truth of Christmas. Until he is not. For centuries, the earth was the centre of everything. Until Copernicus proved otherwise. Newton had us all believing that gravity was a matter of massive attraction. Until Einstein came up with his theory of relativity, and we were presented with four-dimensional concepts (the three dimensions of space and one dimension of time). Now, that truth that held good for so long is being shattered, as even more complex theories bring the possibility of a new level of 'truth'.

We live in times where the 'truth' of all VARIATIONS gets traded. VERILY I say unto you that truth can only be so when held against the pattern of everything around it. The truth of an individual's integrity is only as good as the words and deeds that support it. When VAINGLORIOUS leaders spout all their promises, the truth of their intentions will become VISIBLE only by bringing those things into action. When the people who elected them find that the promises are no more than platitudes or outright lies, you would hope that the VOTERS would be concerned about that person's character and VERACITY. Unfortunately, systems are often set up to prevent an actual representation of the will of the people to manifest...

Nobody is perfect, and we are all prone to mistakes in life. This is part of learning, and most infringements are VENIAL. It is VEXING, though, how often those with self-centred personalities end up at the top of the pile. Those with repeat offences of obfuscation, VERBAL jiggery-pokery, VOID of logic, and shameless in these acts.

As a VEDANTIN, I hold that there is only one absolute truth; no truth is absolute. Each of us can hold onto what we believe to be 'the truth' if that is what keeps life stable for us. But the best of us allows for the possibility that 'the truth' is as subject to change as everything else in this existence. The scientific mind seeks VERIFICATION of data to ascertain the VIABILITY of any given theory. This approach does not have to hold only to the hard sciences. Truth can be quantified as that thing that remains stable while all else is eliminated. If the same result is found on several attempts, that result - at least under the parameters of that experiment - can be held as 'the truth' of that theory/test. Until improved parameters and/or theories arise. 

Problems come when adherents to a given truth think their own VALIDITY can only stand if that truth doesn't shift around them. They fight tooth and nail to defend their VERSION of the truth. In doing this, they prevent the progress of knowledge and understanding. There are many in power, in charge of whole nations, who would have everyone in that nation believe 'their truth' and provide everything but the truth to keep themselves in power. 

Then here, again, we are faced with the one consistently proven truth in the history of the cosmos. Nothing lasts forever, and everything is subject to change.  

Permit me the VANITY of sharing one fact that has held true for sixty-three years; today is my birthday!