Believing it doesn't make it true

Practically everybody has a deep seated belief in something; religion, politics, science, friendships or relationships. And when we do, we believe with all our hearts that our beliefs are true. Every romantic relationship is based on faith and belief. We believe they will love us forever. We believe the things they say to us. We take them at their word. Why? Because there's nothing else we can do. Very few people have the financial resources to have someone monitored twenty four hours a day every day so you would know for sure what they were thinking and doing but even if you had that much money, wouldn't spending it like that defeat the whole purpose of a loving relationship to begin with? We know that relationships are based on truth, trust and honesty. That's what holds a relationship together and that's what makes a relationship work. But the dark side of relationships is that people often don't do what they were supposed to do or what they said they would do and we're left holding the bag while they're riding off into the sunset with someone else. We believed them when they told us there would never be anyone else. We believed them when they said they would love us forever. Our whole future was based on those beliefs and they weren't true.

How many of you have had jobs or bosses that promised you one thing but did something else? You took a job expecting the best and ended up getting the worst. You believed what they told you but what they told you wasn't true and now you're suffering for it.

I could go on and on with example after example of how a belief in something lets us down, disappoints us, and sometimes ruins our lives but there's no need to do that. The point is that everyone who believes something thinks it IS true and they will defend that perspective even if it means a confrontation with their best friend. I used to think that people just liked to think they were right but it's far more nefarious than that; we KNOW we're right and we'll defend that knowledge to the death. That's what the terrorists, both international and home-grown, have been doing for decades. They kill other people and often themselves to prove in some bizarre, illogical way that they were right.

The thing is we don't always have to be right. If fact, it's often good NOT to be right. The next time you're in a conversation with another person who knows they're right and you're wrong, instead of standing by your position, tell him he may be right and see how he responds. Usually they'll nod their heads up and down and say in an arrogant voice that they KNOW they're right. You can't win a debate with a person with logic if the other person is illogical. You can't win an argument with facts if the other person doesn't pay any attention to facts. That's why there is such a huge divide between the Republicans and the Democrats and why that divide is going to persist. Both sides have their own facts and they're sticking to them.

Doesn't it make sense that one side has more truth going for it than the other side? Normally you would think that but in the case with politicians, they specialize in half-truths. No Democrat and few Republicans think that Donald Trump would do as President what he's pledged to do as a candidate but people get riled up into supporting him because of the things he says. His supporters claim that he's the only one shooting from the hip and telling it like it is. Even if that's true, most of the things he promises to do can't be done because we live in a democracy governed by a Constitution that severely limits the powers of any branch of government, including the Executive Branch.

Just because we think we know the truth doesn't mean we do. The truth is static. The truth doesn't shift from day to day due to public opinion. The truth doesn't rely on someone's interpretation.

The truth just is.