Truth Be Told

“You can’t go home again? What does that mean? I know about the esoteric meaning, and all the nonsense that goes with it, but you can’t go home again, sounds like a…I don’t know what, but ominous when you think about it.”

“And why would that be? I can see circumstances where you couldn’t go home, or not want to. I’ve had more than my share of times like that. But those are usually a temporary stalling mechanism until you can decide if it is safe to show yourself.”

“So you were afraid of something?” 

“It was nothing like that. It was just that I don’t have a home to go back to. It’s a long story, and I don’t want to bother you with something you wouldn’t understand.”

“Try me! I don’t have a lot to do, and a good story is always worth waiting for. There are so few today. It seems like all the good story tellers are dead. Can you think of a good story teller who isn’t dead, or wants to be? Someone you would sit down with, and listen to, because you know what they’ve got to say is worth listening to.”

“OK, if you insist.”

“Wait a moment if you please. Is this story you are going to tell me, a story told previously by someone else, and you are just going to repeat it. Or is this a story of your own? Not that it makes a difference I suppose, it’s just that I know you, and to be honest, your stories, although insightful in a dubious ways, are “quite long,” and truth be told, “quite long.”

You could leave out some, if not all of the animation, sound effects, and emotional insurgency; it gets to be a bit much. You really need to brush up on your editing. It is possible, to bore someone to the point they are only pretending to listen, in which case you, as well as the one listening, are just killing time. See what I mean? So which is it?”

It makes me wonder why I bother at all. What possible difference could it make if I’m telling a story of my own, or one someone told me, and I’m just passing it on. I don’t see the relevance either way. A story is a story, no more, no less. Meant to convey some knowledge, or pose a question that causes one to reflect on its premise. The story is what counts, not the one telling it, or who it belongs to. Is it even possible to own a story.

I come from a long line of story tellers. As far back as I can remember my family told stories. Usually, about things that happened to them that they considered enlightening enough to pass on. Our commitment to oral tradition goes back to, what some in the family claim, to be colonial times. I don’t know if I believe that or not, but it does make a good story. 

A couple of my ancestors are said to have been infamous during the Salem Witch trials, which weren’t really trials at all, according to their stories. More like accusations against people that were not following God’s law, or from someone who might not have cared a lot about you. I could see how God being on your side, when it comes to fighting with the neighbors, would be a powerful asset.

Ain’t it funny how whenever you bring God into something, the judging and sentencing seem to come along with it. It is rare indeed when a God story doesn’t end in someone having something done to them that might not be what they had in mind when you got up that morning.

There was a great aunt, somewhere about a couple of hundred years ago, that was claimed to have been burned for her sins, as they believed burning purified the spirit; no matter what you had done, or not done. As the story goes, it was her husband Randolph, or Rumford, can’t recall right off which one, that turned her in. You’d have to have strong feelings about God to do a thing like that, especially to someone you were married to. 

It just seemed to me that it was one of those irreversible things, that depend too much on who is accusing who, and of what. It would be like trying to prove a negative. Most things either succeed or fail on their own merit, but a negative? How can you prove someone has done something so awful, that they need to be cleansed by fire to prove it. 

I get the symbolism, but I also get the fact that you can’t disprove the accusations when what you are being asked to prove, is unprovable. No way to prove you are a devil worshiper, or you aren’t. So the charges brought against you are literally unprovable, and the defense, also not being able to disprove the allegations, leaves you with a conundrum that pits, moist air against dry air, for the sake of an analogy. 

The difference between two differing beliefs in this scenario, is primarily a belief you are right, God is on your side, and they are wrong. But that doesn’t help your cause one way or the other, when you are the one that is going to end up on the wrong end of the match, metaphorically of course.

So, that brings us back, to not being able to go home again. It’s the word can’t, that begs interpretation.  Can’t implies, you do not have the means to go home. Assuming of course, you are talking about a tangible home. You could of course be talking about a spiritual home, which again leaves you without proof, as there is none. 

I was thinking about telling him the story of war, and how it only proves a temporary solution to an endless problem. War has been going on forever, nothing is ever gained, and so much is lost. But then rarely does one gain pertinent knowledge from gruesome renderings, as it tends to cause the issue to be ignored, as most people do not enjoy being reminded of the realities of war.

Perhaps I should tell him a story about honesty, but then that only reminds one of all the dishonesty that surrounds us, and once again causes us to dismiss the lesson, as it dredges up personal implications to having engaged in such activities, oneself.

There is greed of course to expound upon, but again, a reminder we all have an inherent ability to possess things, sometimes people, to satisfy our vain interests. Forgiveness of course could be a theme, but usually forgiveness requires empathy that comes with the ability to understand another’s situation, and given peoples attention to self-righteousness these days, I don’t think it would have an impact other than a symbolic one, if that.

I could I suppose, resort to…but…

“Tell you what! Let’s play checkers, it is much safer, less intimidating, and it will give us both an opportunity to contemplate the necessity of cheating to win. Or I could tell you a story about a person who built what was considered to be, an honorable monarchy.”

“What does that mean?”