The Only Truth I Know

“And so you see, I have come to doubt
All that I once held as true
I stand alone without beliefs
The only truth I know is you”

                                         Paul Simon, Kathy’s Song

Getting older hasn’t meant I have gotten smarter and more sure of myself. If anything, I am less sure of those things I once knew for certain. Everything swings from end to end, pole to pole. Momentary half-baked opinions fully expressed as undeniable truths – the louder and more passionate, the truer they are. What was unthinkable a decade ago is now here. What was unspeakable in another time is breakfast talk today. What was honorable is castigated. What was castigated is now applauded. One seeking an honorable and quiet life has nowhere to turn. The truth spins on an axis too fast to stand. I dream I hold onto a plow-handle behind a mule. The scarred wood is sure in my palm, and the blade turns up the ground like a natural law. It does the same work the same way today as it did six thousand years ago. The ground turns and gives up its life for me. I dream I sit by a river under a tree, both of which have been here longer than I. They will watch as I disappear. For years leaders have come and gone promising new deals great societies bright cities on hills a thousand points of light chickens in every pot a greater America and here we are at the same place. Our hopes slip away from us in the darkness of night and we awake laden with silent fear that we have stopped believing Paradise is on its way. Yet, in the distance can be heard the faint music of that song that filled up the saints and mystics and sinners and clowns and fools as they stripped down naked to follow the notes. It is the song of love-a song that rises over the cacophony of this age and all ages. It is the song sung by that solitary women in her cell, “All is well, and every manner of thing shall be well.” It is the song of the mad evangelist sitting alone on a rock in Patmos who never stopped singing “God is Love”. That is the only truth I know. The only truth I know is You.