Plato

My daughter is in a Philosophy class and is reading Plato's Republic right now.
Painful for me at best, I could barely get through this read in high school. Matter of fact, this may be the one book I did not read...cliffnotes...holla. She just asked for my help in getting through this work.
What to do?
Tell her NO, Mommy just can't wrap her head around the words of Plato. Pretend to listen then tell her she needs to figure it out herself? Actually try to read it with her...
We all know the correct answer here, but I just can't make myself listen to the words of this literary work...again.
Someone carefully explained The Cave to me, and I remembered, this was actually the only work I could relate to. The concept of trying to explain to others "the truth". What is the truth? The truth is your perception of your reality, but there is a reality outside of that as well.
I look inside myself and know my perception is also manipulated by history.
Truth is a world of a word.
Your truth is more reasonable because it is defined by you in terms you can understand. When Jack Nicholson screams, "You can't handle the truth" in the war crime film "A Few Good Men", he speaks the truth. We can not handle the truth. The truth is so far greater than what we know or understand. The truth makes men. The truth defines heros. The truth is a concept so expansive, even as I type it, I realize it is not even what I have believed up until this day. My truth is different from yours. There is a world of truth that is a planet I haven't traveled to...yet.

Incidents themselves are not manipulated by perception, but an objective retell is hardly possible. Action sparks feeling, feeling generates opinion, and the truth becomes "a truth", not the truth.
How you remember everything is your own truth, not THE truth. How we interpret life is our truth, not the truth.

Step outside the cave and look into the light, this is still only our truth because we defined the sun.
We can only relate to what we know, not what exists outside of our reality.
Then there's the emotional attachment to what that means.
Have you ever had a moment where you read something, or someone told you a story, and you didn't have a direct reaction to it without even thinking? A moment ever, where what you know didn't affect what you heard? What is truth, really?

Great concepts and traveling

I have finally decided where my creative drive is going to take me this week.
I have a full week off, and so many stories in my head from the past month or so, I hadn't quite decided how to get all these idea on paper. I finally decided, 3 short stories. 1 novel. All flight related.
125 pages each, a deadline, and 3 very interesting stories.
GO!

Travel Attire

I flew on a USAir flight from Phoenix to Denver and became acutely aware of the difference between American travelers and travelers from anywhere else in the world. Somehow we have become the lazy, sloppy tourist, turning air travel into bus travel, with our pajamas and head scarves and lack of respect for public presentation.

The people of Wal-Mart have nothing on the air travelers of our nation.

In twenty minutes I watched women in head scarves traipse through the airport chewing with their mouths full. I saw small children in pajamas, being led by adults in sweats and house slippers. It occurred to me that we have no pride.
Gone are the days of dressing up to go see family and friends on the other side of the country or the world. I actually saw a man in a suit with flip flops on. Whether you are going to a business meeting or going home from a day of business - what if your company CEO happened to be on the same flight? What if your CFO happened to be at the airport picking up his wife or mother as you bounced off of a airplane with no damn socks on?
We have taken this "comfort thing" too far.
For shame.
No offense, but I will never take anyone seriously who approaches me in a house coat and curlers in their hair. Did you really leave the house like that? What is wrong with you? With us, as a nation?

Lies and their value

What do these people have in common:
Actors, lovers, kids, lawyers, corporations, and politicians.
They all lie.

The one group not on this list: Your friends.
Your true, loyal, til death do you part, friends.
Friends don't lie to you.
No matter how much it sucks, no matter what the consequence, even if it hurts your feelings - your friends will always tell you the truth.
That is their job in life.
Even when you don't want to hear it.
Your best interest is at hand and the truth is always in your best interest. Whether you know it or not, the truth allows you freedoms you don't even know are good for you.
What freedoms you wonder?
The freedom to choose based on facts...not a story, made up by someone who does not have your best interest at hand, but their own.
The freedom to live in integrity with someone who walks with you.
The freedom to believe in someone other than self.
The freedom to know the value of your own life.

"Hope is the only universal liar who never loses his reputation for veracity."
~Robert Green Ingersoll