Clarity

"For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known." This statement cannot be made into some methodology for sight is either there or not. "But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear."

There is a lot of conjecture about what is true. Authority is often confused for it. It begins with children believing parents, guardians, teachers and then grows up to believing our boss, governments, experts, leaders...

Anyone who challenges our accepted authority becomes an enemy of truth or a liar. There is a whole discipline for discovering truth: philosophy. And how many philosophers do you know?

Personal truth though is where seeing and hearing begins. Like the child that hangs on to every word of their guardian but then sees discrepancies in what they are told, self discovery is all part of growing into an adult. I submit to you that the discovery does not end when you turn 18 (or even when your children turn 18).

The hardest person to see is oneself. People tell us what they see. We want to impress some of them to get the responses we want. Society is made of such interactions. "“You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”. If you try to please someone without regard to what you really want for yourself, life does become as confusing as the convoluted quote.

Confusion is the opposite of clarity. So to see with our eyes and hear with our ears, we must start with oneself.  This involves being alone, some pain, some hurt and a lot of accepting. Unless you go through this, the "glass" we use to view life will be dark, unclear and confusing. It also needs at least one person who accepts you completely. Clarity starts with the person in the mirror.

The quote actually works better as follows: “You can fool some of the people all of the time, you can fool all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time” But the most foolish is to deceive oneself.