Near Twins: Truth and Falsehood

 ...though truth and falsehood be

Near twins, yet truth a little elder is,

Be busy to seek her...

On a huge hill,

Cragged and steep, Truth

stands, and he that will

Reach her, about must and

about must go...

Satire III   John Donne (1572-1631)

I am enjoying Malcolm Guite's poetry anthology for Lent very much this year. The poems and discussion complement the Lenten scripture readings which recently have focused on Jesus' encounters with the tempter in the wilderness as described in the gospels of Matthew and Luke. 

John Donne wrote his satire on religion while contemplating questions of faith. We might say today that he was going through a period of "deconstruction". The lines above resonated with me as I recognized with Donne that truth and falsehood are often difficult to discern. Satan, the same deceiver who questioned Eve in Genesis, tempted Jesus to misuse his authority and abandon his purpose for coming to earth. Jesus responded to each temptation with scriptural truth saying, "It is written..."

Rainbows are a beautiful and compelling sight and I look for them whenever there is rain or mist and sun. But a rainbow is just an optical illusion created when light is refracted by tiny droplets of water. A prism acts the same way, bending and separating light to create bands of colour. I took the picture above at Niagara Falls when the sun was behind me shining through the mist of the Canadian falls. The sun, on the other hand, has form and substance. Likewise, truth is can be compared to the sun and falsehood is a distortion and illusion like a rainbow. Donne describes truth and falsehood as near twins, yet the truth is a little older and precedes falsehood. "Be busy to seek her..."

Truth is "like the sun, dazzling, yet plain to all eyes." 

Finding the truth can be challenging. "On a huge hill, Cragged and steep, Truth stands..."

Most of us, from an early age, find it easy to deceive others. One night this week I asked my 5-year-old granddaughter what she had for dinner and she replied, "Oatmeal!" I believed her for a moment and then asked if she was tricking me. "It was a joke", she replied. "I really had pizza." 

One of my daughters is refreshingly truthful. I was looking at a recent photo of a childhood friend I have not seen for over 50 years and was remarking on how she had aged. I realize that my perception of my appearance is youthfully bent so I asked my daughter, "Do I look as old as she does?" She answered, "You look a little younger or about the same age", covering her bases well and refusing to appeal to my vanity.

We face deception every day as we decipher biased news reporting, marketing hyperbole, clickbait headlines, social media misinformation, and charismatic voices. I try to verify everything before repeating it, yet have been deceived as well. Falsehoods, like a rainbow, can appear very compelling and attractive and often appeal to the masses.

John Donne was on a search for spiritual truth, a search that required perseverance and the devotion of a pilgrim. Further on in the poem he writes,

"Hard deeds, the body's pains; hard knowledge too

The mind's endeavours reach, and mysteries

Are like the sun, dazzling, yet plain to all eyes.

Keep the truth which thou hast found..."

Truth is found by seeking the light, not a reflection or refraction of the light. The light is always nearby.