The Whole Truth and Nothing But the Truth

There is no advantage to lie to a rough horse in the round pen. When one stands alone with a wild horse that could, if it chose to, kill you at any moment, only truth matters. It can be a moment of stark realization that pretending that you know what you are doing is of no value. Perhaps the most dangerous lies are those that we tell to ourselves.

When not in a horse lot I am a prosecutor. That means that I spend my days in court watching people swear to tell the truth and then listening to them lie. Truth has come to have no special value to too many people. It simply is one of the items on the buffet, to be put on the plate or left on the table as the whim of the moment dictates.

Television advertising took the lie of the old time medicine show to an entire world instead of just the few who could stand within sight of the huckster that peddled his bottled fraud to gullible. Television did not make it easier to lie. It just made it easier for the lie to be heard.

Televangelists took lying to a another realm. They raked in money from telling infernal lies about eternal truths. Cable news abandoned any sense of responsibility to present truth. Balancing a lie from the right with a lie from the left does not produce truth. Facebook has given every individual liar a heady sense of the power of the lie.

Faux religion. Faux politics. Faux economics. Facebook even gives us faux friendship.

Around 1970, Johnny Cash wrote, "And the lonely voice of youth cries, What is truth?" Today's lonely voice of youth believes "Who cares about truth?"

It is tempting to believe that the only place truth is found is in the horse lot, but truth is still out there, on life support perhaps, but not yet dead. Brutal, often painful, music is filled with truth. Hopeful, comforting music is filled with truth. I do not understand why those that often wrote the most truth filled music were those that took the needle or the bottle and filled themselves with the lying comfort of addiction. What is the connection between truth and suffering? Why can't the truth found in nail scarred hands be enough to destroy the lie that leaves needle scarred arms?

I do not know.

Musical truth does not always reach up and put its arm around you. Sometimes it takes its hand and slaps you in the face. Looking for the truth about the connection between poverty, oppression, addiction, violence and war--listen to "Copperhead Road." Looking for the truth about the degradation and humiliation of being homeless--listen to "Marie". Looking for the truth about the shallowness of materialism--listen to "Sin City." Looking for the truth about the redemptive bonding of shared grief--listen to "Who Will Sing For Me?" Looking for the truth about looking for strength--listen to "In My Hour of Darkness." Looking for simple truth about our clear moral obligation to care for kids regardless of who they are or where they come from--listen to "Jesus Loves the Little Children." Looking for truth about execution--listen to "Billy Austin." Looking for truth about the eternal nature of family ties--listen to "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?"

Looking for truth about how it is all going to turn out in the end--listen to "I'll Fly Away."

When I am working a bad horse in the round pen I find that the horse often calms down when I sing to it. Working a bad horse in a round pen while softly singing "We Shall Overcome"--now there is a double whammy of truth.