Where Do You Find Truth?

A while ago I tweeted this post from Tammy Erickson, in which she makes a generational distinction for how people seek truth.

Boomers, she says, seek a single view of truth--the one best authority with the most unvarnished version of the facts. Xers, in contrast, see multiple versions of truth--seeking wisdom in the interplay of these different perspectives.

As with most generational distinctions, these are broad generalizations, applying perhaps to the groups but certainly not to all individuals in the groups. And I don't believe Erickson meant either observation as a criticism.

But for me, the post raises a larger question--as it seems to have with a lot of the commenters on Erickson's blog. They argue back and forth about whether truth is absolute or relative--an age-old philosophical conundrum that the practical side of me has little patience for.

I, instead, ask myself where it is that I find truth. And my answer comes swiftly. Wherever I happen to be looking.

Don't you? Don't we all? To use the examples in Erickson's post, some of us look to Walter Cronkite, others of us look to Mondokio--but no matter where we look, we always seem to find what we're looking for.

Case in point.