Talk:§ Karen Lawson
From true
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Olsona 15:49, 12 April 2007 (PDT)
[edit] Peer Review by John White
I had a hard time deciding how to review your paper. I’ll start by saying I really don’t mean to offend, and I don’t think there is anyway I or anyone else could say that their view is definitely more accurate than anyone else’s. Your essay really reminded me of the concept of personal truth and how it arrives differently for everyone. While you found your truth by becoming a Christian, I found my freedom to find truth when I denounced it (for myself). I attended a born again Christian church till about age 17. The change occurred for me when I started reading the bible. I asked myself if god is love and the bible is god’s word then how he could say such horrible things. These things were never brought up during sermons; I had to find them myself.
Deuteronomy, chapter 13 – King James Version
12: If thou shalt hear say in one of thy cities, which the LORD thy God hath given thee to dwell there, saying,
13: Certain men, the children of Belial, are gone out from among you, and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which ye have not known;
14: Then shalt thou inquire, and make search, and ask diligently; and, behold, if it be truth, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought among you;
15: Thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein, and the cattle thereof, with the edge of the sword.
It’s kind of hard to understand, but it is basically telling you to kill anyone in a city where they worship a different god than you. I can’t imagine how this could be viewed as not condoning hate or discrimination, and I can definitely see sometimes where humans have followed this advice in recent history. I enjoyed reading your essay, and only found one typo: in the second paragraph Christian was spelled christen.
[edit] = Review By Crystal Lawson
Karen, your work as always is very well written and focused, but I wonder if you really branched out on this piece?You know our religious views differ slightly, and I could list the differences here and pin point what I agree and disagree with when it comes to religion. But I don't believe that is the point because that would be selfish and this is suppose to help you write your paper, and not try to justify my truth. Some people are going to get defensive about your work because it makes them uncomfortable, but I would like to see you write about something that makes you uncomfortable. An example would be a little more detail in what you mean when you say “ I am no longer the person I once was who thought truth lie in sex, drugs and rock in roll or what ever else the world was offering at the time in the form of its truth” I would like to see you go into more detail about this part of your life and how that truth compares to the truth you live today. I also have a question about “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” Has there been a time in your life when you failed to do this? And if so, looking back what truth did you find then if any? I know your love of God is great, you got that across very well. I would just like to see more of your own life, You were just misdiagnosed with cancer, and I know that had an impact on your out look on life and truth.
Lawcry13 07:55, 21 April 2007 (PDT) Crys Lawson
[edit] Evaluation of my own truth paper.
After reading over my paper I decided to evaluate my own work. I was on pain medication when this was written and I remember feeling that it is hard to write about this subject when impaired, especially the older you get. and the paper accurately reflects my personal truth.
The past few weeks I have been dealing with truth in "real life". Six weeks ago an X-ray reveled a "mass in my chest" that is how it is put in the medical community. This mass found by accident put me on "Get down to reality here, this is serious", mode. After my second biopsy we were told that I had cancer. I got the idea that it might be lung cancer from the things said over me.
So, since there really isn't a "good" kind of lung cancer, and I was not real happy about the 2 surgeries in as many weeks, I was looking at my life as well as my possible death and truths about these things head on. I was the deer in the headlight! Personally, I think I should get extra points for this in depth reflection on truth given that it was a real life simulation of some of the subject matter covered in class. But, that is just an opinion and not a "truth of the matter." So, I looked at this unexpected bump in the road and said, "Damn it to hell, I don't have time for this," but you have to find the time.
My mother used to tell me, "To thyne own self be true." No one else's truth can ever really be our truth. We spend our lives trying to get each other to understand what the truth means to us. Each of us will always color "the truth" with our own perspective. That in and of itself seems to be a truth. So From my near cancer experience,(it turned out to be a misdiagnosis, not cancer after all but something else entirely). I was also afforded the ability to look at what I really believed as my personal truth, before, during and after a near death sort of experience. And, find out what my family believed to be true about life and death.
For me that truth turned out to be the same truth that I lived by each day. I did not need to look any further and was able to relax and deal with what I had to deal with. People say that I was strong, and took it so well. I can't explain to them that it was really a non-issue. I was at peace with my truth about life and death and that was all it was. Faith at rest. So I am satisfied with my own personal truth and need not seek any other. I believe I will continue to define personal truth more and more as I age. And, things like what we just went through only help us to define our personal truths all the more.
As I watched my friends and family watch me. I saw very clearly that what was so true and clear to me about life and death and God were not so clear to them. Even though I talk about living and dying all the time and how important it is to really think hard, everyday about both states, they did not see things my way at all. I was stunned at their fear! It would seem to me that the development of ones own truth, needs to be worked on and sought throughout ones life. No one else can do it for you.
I am thinking about how I view universal truth. There are laws of nature that we as a species perceive based upon what we think we know. Gravity, humanity, dark, light? What humanity needs to survive is a universal truth. Can it go beyond this? I don't know. Can a primitive from an undeveloped part of the world share any other universal truths beyond what is truth to human kind in general?
As for what lies beyond the earth and within patterns of numbers and letters and lines. I believe the truth to be as vast and as far and as wide as are the minds of man and God.