YoM 41: Shaping truth

Yesterday, I talked about finding “truth” for ourselves. Today is a new day.

“Today I bent the truth to be kind, and I have no regret, for I am far surer of what is kind than I am of what is true.” - Robert Brault

Truth is based on perspective. For example, let’s take how we view other people. I can’t think of someone who doesn’t have someone that dislikes them. Imagine meeting someone for the first time and having a bad first-impression of them. From then on that person is now perceived as bad. That is your truth based on your personal experience. That person could very well be the most sweet person to someone else, but your truth is that they’re the scum of the earth and it will stay like that until you decide to try changing it.

One of my students in my first kids’ class was a problem student. He was smart, memorized the materials well, but was a little cocky. He eventually thought he could do whatever he wanted. I came in during the middle of the year and by that time the class rules weren’t being enforced by previous teachers and so the students got used to having a lot of freedom. This made that one kid harder to get back into a more focused learning environment. I knew he wasn’t terrible but I thought he didn’t want to learn at all and that he hated me. He would test me every day to see how much he could get away with and after a lot of effort and patience, I came to understand that he wanted more of a challenge His craziness was his way of venting his boredom.

Rather than seeing him as a monster, I wanted to persist in being a positive role-model for him by showing him the value of kindness. Even when he did bad things, I wanted him to feel accepted and liked. I started giving him more responsibilities in class and testing him and he responded negatively at first (maybe he saw it as a threat?). In time, he became much more cooperative and polite. He even helped me out a few times, which I really appreciated.

By the end of the year what was once a “trouble-student” became a good role-model for the other students. Although misunderstood, he was definitely still a problem-student, but I think it was possible for him to change because I didn’t let myself see him as just a problem-child.

I think the same applies to everything. We create new truths through our actions. It might be an exaggeration to refer to my story as a “truth”, but a person who was once a complete dick to you can become quite agreeable based on our interactions with them. First impressions don’t have to be permanent. Truth is something we can create for ourselves with the right effort and set-up.

                                                                                                                 Peace
 

Truth can be exactly what we want it to be.