My thoughts are running like silent snow flakes from the sky.
The quote on my title page is from the comic (and I use this term loosely) Stephen Colburn who is interviewed annually at Christmas time by John Dickerson on Meet The Nation.
Of course, the quote is about our incoming President Trump, who will become head of the state in less than two weeks.
After the interview, I started writing "There Are No Fact Any More" on a sheet of paper and continued rewriting the same quote over and over again. It was a compulsive act on my part. May be it was a stress releaser. If it was a stress relieve it failed because this morning, as I sit at my desk waiting for a big snow storm to arrive, I kept re-reading this phrase. It rings so true in my mind.
There are not facts anymore.
People hear sound bits and believe these sound bits are the truth. If they are spoken on TV - they must be the truth. If they are Tweeted around the world - they must be the truth.
No fact checkers need to apply for the truth patrol as it has been eliminated.
I opened a small book on the Teaching of Zen edited by Thomas Cleary which was given to me by a dear friend. I randomly opened the book to the quote below:
"There is originally no word for truth, but the way to it is reveled by words. The way originally has no explanation, but reality is made clear by explanation. That is why the Buddhas appeared in the world with many expedient methods; the whole canon dispenses medicines according to diseases."
Shih-shuang (986-1039)
The more the world changes, the less it changes. We never learn.
