February’s Prompt: The Journey of Truth
We Are Not "Sojourner Truth", But Perhaps We Are "Sojourners" of Truth
Every month, we pull a prompt from our BreakBread World Conversation Card Deck and offer a reflection. This month we pulled the “truth” prompt:
When has hearing the truth of another changed you or your truth?
Maybe you are scratching your head when you read this prompt. Hm, when has hearing the truth of another changed me? For me, theater and art flash through my mind: the Vagina Monologues, my friend Greg’s one man show, the banana that sold for $6.2 million. During a BreakBread we co-hosted in the Boston area one person quoted Elaine Guerian, a museum consultant, who said “Museums are a safe place for unsafe ideas.” In this sense, art is a powerful expression of the unsaid, the truth below the surface.
But this brings me to the question: What is truth? This question inflames some people because they fear we live in a “post-truth” society where “objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief”. For me personally, I’ve always felt the “rational” truth seems great for fixing power lines and cars but when it comes to the stuff of life, truth is quite maleable. For example, “What is a banana?” According to Wikipedia “A banana is an elongated, edible fruit—botanically a berry—produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus Musa.” But maybe a banana is also a sign of status (as in paying lots of money for banana art) or maybe it is love (as in Banana Bread my grandma made). Could it be that there are many truths and to be human is to be a sojourn of truth?
The word “sojourn” means to stay as a temporary resident. From a biblical perspective, it can reference our spiritual journey on earth, with hopes of returning to our ultimate heavenly home with God. And in many religions, the truth is buried in a sacred text that is set as immoveable law.
Religion aside, are we all on a sojourn of truth? If you follow the work of BreakBread, you know I am.
Most of us have heard of Sojourner Truth, but if you live in Kingston, NY, where I live, you most definitely know who she is. Sojourner Truth was born into slavery as Isabelle Bomefree in Hurley, NY, one town over from Kingston. In 1843, after finally gaining her state-sanctioned freedom and being called by God to travel through the country and share a message of hope, she gave herself the name Sojourner Truth.
Part of Sojourner Truth’s journey of truth was waking up to the prismatic allure of her previous violent “owner” John Dumont, whose abuse she had internalized. (As an aside, is it “true” that someone can “own” someone else?) For Sojourner Truth, after living “free” with abolitionists Isaac and Maria Van Wagenen in a nearby town for a year she almost voluntarily returned into the twisted world of John Dumont. Instead, en route to his carriage to go “back home” to Dumont, in a supernatural flash from God, she saw the pimpled “truth” of Dumont, the ever-presence of God and a vision of Jesus. In this moment, she stopped herself from stepping back into Dumont’s bruised and battered world. Instead, she turned around – making the powerful choice to finally free herself. In that moment, she listened and the truth set her free. We know Sojourner Truth’s truth changed her so deeply that she became a beacon of truth, transmitted throughout the country and across time.
When I think about these pinnacle moments of truth – those struck by truth, I think of the artists, thinkers, and friends who are open enough to receive truth and courageous enough to share truth. I know I have had those moments while making art.
In particular I think of two of my teachers: Regina Thomashauer and Kasia Urbaniak. Their deep work changed my thinking completely. They both carried teaching about the invisible dynamics of being a woman in the modern western world. They were open enough to receive this wisdom and courageous enough to share it. Their work opened my eyes to the role I played in the patriarchal paradigm. I changed from being reactive and self-loathing to holding a deep and sacred embrace of my innate unique gifts as a woman and a growing agency to work with both my feminine and masculine powers to move through the world. I can’t even imagine my life without these new perspectives. They inform much of our Conversation Alchemy teaching and are foundational to my Relational Leadership Coaching practice.
Could it be that truth travels, moves, sways, weaves in and out of the mental, physical and spiritual world and that some people become lighting rods of truth?
Yes, but I also think truth can also be an everyday occurrence if we are open to it. I know that I feel those moments on a regular basis. One example is when I’m in a BreakBread conversation as we sit together and vulnerably share stories, laugh at the complexity of life and expand our sense of reality. Through each conversation we shift toward a deeper appreciation for our ever changing spiritual, emotional and physical truths. We like to say that when you head into any conversation, and especially a BreakBread conversation, you risk being changed forever.
I recall at one of our many BreakBread gatherings, one friend shared how they moved into a new understanding of love after separating and then getting back together with her husband. I was moved by her ability to be courageous and her humility in the face of insight. When I say moved, I mean I felt it in my heart and my sense of her expanded. There was a visceral shift, truly. I appreciated her wisdom and strength and shared these appreciations with her! She in turn, was changed by my ability to be moved. It is through both the sharing and the receiving of truth that the world is changed (same for Sojourner Truth, Regina Thomashauer, Kasia Urbaniak, the Banana artist). In this sense, if we can truly receive someone in conversation and share our authentic truth, then we have a recipe for change. This wasn’t the kind of change where seeing the truth of another reorganizes the direction of my life. That’s a tall order – the stuff of epochs. These are turning points.
But writing this reminds me to thank the pulsing world around me for its vibrant and alive truth. I am not talking about the truth that is “set in stone” but one that is moveable, dynamic and alive – one where truth lies in both flashes of insight and in small ways like when the dog nudges me for more pets.
We invite you to think about the prompt but more importantly, we invite you to host a BreakBread using this prompt and see…will the truth of another change you?