Truth is a bastard.

If Submission to Truth means giving yourself to proven, indisputable principles that often inconvenience you but lead to victory, then what is its opposite? The opposite of any submission is rebellion, revolt and outright refusal. So the antonym of submitting to truth is telling it to screw off.

Sometimes I ask people if they’d turn in a family member who had murdered someone undeserving. (I usually have to qualify the statement because people usually assume a family member would only murder someone who had it coming.) But invariably there’s a pause and with teens, a certain “plead-the-fifth” kind of silence. The scenario is uncomfortable for most of us. And we may define family differently but if you insert said “family” member into the equation, it undoubtedly arouses a dilemma.

That’s why truth is hard though. It requires a trade-off almost always. It demands decisiveness, positioning on one side of an argument. It alienates. It irritates. It presents risks that don’t guarantee you’ll have what you desire. It forces you to respond to your own temptations when they urge you, “Cheat.” “Don’t ask your cousin about her sexuality.” “Don’t tell your kids no and risk them hating you.” “Don’t ask your kids, spouse, friend, etc. for forgiveness. You know they ain’t gonna give it.”

I think we assume that truth is brutal and intentionally bent on destruction. We would never say that though. But maybe we only feel that way because of how candid it is. Truth is blunt and will ask what no one else will. “You gon ignore that breast lump?” “You plannin’ on gettin’ help with that ____________ problem?””How’d that divorce really feel?”

Truth doesn’t pretend at all and doesn’t need to create a false reality. It doesn’t fear falling out of good graces. Truth doesn’t even make promises of reward. Truth just IS. And the more blatant the truth, the more obvious it is that we have to submit. We are trapped in a sense. But along the way, and very early in life, we start struggling with intangible truths…things like honesty, fidelity, discipline and loyalty. See, truth was negligent. It is as if it didn’t account for facades and the deception of self and others. Truth knew that people couldn’t live without hope, integrity, tenacity and such. But it allowed us to think that we could skirt those issues and make the world think we had developed those traits. And so protecting the criminal family member or cheating to win often doesn’t offer consequences as immediate as say…revolting against the law of gravity with a leap from a freeway overpass.

Truth would seem to demand submission in some areas and not in others. What’s the deal?

The deal is that things aren’t always what they seem. Truth is truth because it’s consistent whether we’re talking about the tangible fact that humans can’t breathe under water or the intangible reality that people fake it everyday to look like they’re better than the next man. I guess Truth just has a chivalrous side. Must we always be forced to not jump to our deaths by ignoring good advice, forced to not become drunk with pride and forced to admit that racial and socioeconomic discrimination persists? Truth is a trip. Truth is what it is, as if to say, “I ain’t gotta say no mo’. I’m truth damn it.” And to that statement I say, “True!”