Somewhere in the middle

In a “fake news” world, it’s hard to find the truth among the rubble. Noise, constant noise drowns out the need, the desire to find out what’s real and what’s bias. Everyone rushes to put their spin on the events in our lives and our communities. Let’s say you come upon a car wreck, unfortunate, I know, but there are ten witnesses. Each witness has a different story; a different perspective. Some will say it was the truck’s fault, some will say that it was the car’s fault, and you may have one or two who give you a completely different story. You’ll find that most things in life fall somewhere in the middle. You may not see everything others do as squarely honest, but that’s not something you have the ability to discern. Gossip is something that no matter how hard any one of us tries, we can’t avoid it. So what do we do?

The “two sides to every story” saying implies that each narrative originates from its own perspective. Perspective, in the art world, falls somewhere between what we as the viewer sees and what the author wants us to see. Phrased more articulately, it’s drawing a three-dimensional figure on a two-dimensional medium. People are a lot like that, too. The need to embellish, claim, and rewrite is so deeply ingrained in the human essence that it’s nearly impossible to escape. It ultimately wires us as humans to learn the fine art of discernment when we read between the lies of the information we process from any given source.

The next time you hear something that makes you go, “oh, that’s interesting,” collect more viewpoints, investigate, and ask questions. Learning where the truth is will require effort, but I can promise you that it falls somewhere in the middle.