Writers Dreaming

When Maya Angelou says “There’s world of difference between truth and fact” I couldn’t agree more. Facts are accurate. Facts are cold and hard. They happened, but they exist only within themselves. Facts only tell you what has occurred, but that doesn’t mean truth is always drawn from them. You can know someone ate a cookie, but that doesn’t mean you know in your bones that the person who ate it was greedy, or that that person really appreciated the taste the treat had. Facts are limited. Truth, however, is the opposite of many of the things facts are.

Truth is something that can be applied to a multitude of things within a lifetime, while facts apply only in one location, even when they fit into other facts like pieces of a puzzle. Truth is more like wisdom than knowledge; it is something that exists within someone’s heart. Someone could be spiteful within their heart and that would be truth, but a fact would be that you can’t prove that. Truth is what makes up a person’s mind, and facts make up the body. One example of truth is that love is the most precious thing we can have, as it is something that acts as fuel and warmth for us when we’re down and freezing. Love is a permanent perfect stain on you that you can never entirely wash off no matter how hard you or life tries. Anyone who has experienced love can agree that this is true. Truth is universal, even if its idea is rejected by some people.

A particular truth that I know Maya Angelou and I both have faith in is the idea of humanity triumphing over adversity. Everybody has that ability, inside. You can be alone and sick, but still look up and say that inside myself, I’m not going to let this beat me. That’s a triumph to have, and humanity can overcome in other ways as well. Economic destitution, heartbreak, illness, betrayal, moral decay, and disaster, every day people are overcoming these things. They overcome regardless if they get a piece on the nightly news. Think of the stories you hear about, and then think on all the millions and millions of stories we never hear of. Humanity is beautiful like that, just as much as it can be hideous on other days.

My family has shown to me the ability to overcome adversity, on various scales. My parents remember days when they could say they were flat-broke, and yet they pulled themselves up by their bootstraps. My family all knows loss of a loved one in some way, but they still carry on knowing that those who have gone before us want them to do so. My family continues to smile at warm memories. Cancer and health scares have plagued us time and again, particularly in unlucky 2013, but we’re all still here, alive and healthy. I couldn’t be more grateful for that, and the plucky truth that comes with it. Anyone can adapt and overcome.

I can say that I’ve been blessed with not having any extreme heart-wrenching adversities in my life, but should they come my way, I’ll be ready. I’m a human, with my truth in my heart. I can do it.  We’re all human, with truths in our hearts. My family has done it, Maya Angelou did it, and millions of people do it each day. So why can’t I? So why can’t you?