The Poignant Truth  

Posted by Brock Booher

Years ago while living in South America, I became a fan of a Spanish singer, Jose Luis Perales. His song, “Cómo Es El”, was one of my favorites. The song is poetic, as most of his songs are, and speaks of stolen love as the couple separates. Cómo es el literally means ‘how is he’ or more clearly translated, ‘what is he like?’ The forsaken lover painfully and pointedly questions the departing woman about the nature of the conquering rival, and where exactly did he fall in love with her. I always considered it a poignant and moving song. And then the other day I found out the real meaning behind the song, and it deepened my understanding of the song making the poignancy downright visceral.

I found out that the ‘forsaken lover’ was a father questioning his daughter as she announced her betrothal. With the new information in mind, I played the song again. Since I now have three daughters, an entirely new wave of emotion overcame me as the old lyrics played, and I must admit that I cried. It was, as they say, a significant paradigm shift.

How often does new information completely change our outlook, our feelings, or our understanding of something? Perhaps it doesn’t happen enough.

We often trudge along in life from one event to another without opening our eyes, ears, and minds to other possibilities. We entrench ourselves in our mindset and fight off any new information as if it were an invading army hell-bent on destroying our way of thinking. In the end, like the trench, our thinking becomes narrow, monotonous, and goes nowhere productive.

If, however, we build our house of thought on the rock of truth, then we can gladly welcome in any new idea or thought into the walls of our home for examination without fearing the outcome. If it is truth, we gladly give it space and welcome it as we would a new member of our family. If it is not truth, then we can confidently and cordially show it to the door. Because the foundation is strong, the house can withstand any paradigm shifts.

Truth needs no defense. We need not hedge it or protect it. We need simply learn it, proclaim it, and ally ourselves to it.

My paradigm shift deepened my admiration for a beautiful song, but now when I hear the words, my emotions will be different than before. The song is still poetic and poignant, but the truth about its meaning made me feel its emotional message more deeply than before – perhaps because I now have three daughters that are growing up too fast.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 16, 2010 at Tuesday, February 16, 2010 . You can follow any responses to this entry through the comments feed .

2 comments

Anonymous  

I remember many years ago as I watched 3 of my daus walk toward me the ole saying "I don't remember growing old when did they?"
Dad

February 16, 2010 at 10:28 AM

Thanks Brock, I really enjoyed this. As one who has gone through many paradigm shifts in my life, I can really appreciate the feelings you talk about. I recently went through another one while reading some information about one of my great grandfathers. I knew many of the stories already, but something happened to me this time that caused me to feel a great closeness to him and in the process it opened my eyes to a deeper understanding of eternal things.

Reading your post caused me to reflect on D&C 93:24, which says, “And truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come;” I started thinking about how many times my “knowledge” of things has changed throughout my life and it is scary. Things that I have thought were right and true were literally only the surface of something much deeper and more significant, just as your story so beautifully illustrates. Sometimes we have to recognize that our knowledge and understanding has been completely wrong. What a painful, yet liberating experience that can be!

Truth is not our interpretation or opinion of things, it is not found in consensus of thought or because a majority says so. Absolute truth can only come from God; only He knows things as the “really are”, as they “really were” and as they “really are to come”. What a wonderful thing it is to know that as we are obedient to Him, wisdom and great treasures of knowledge become available to us (D&C 89:19; Alma 12: 9-11) and our understanding of “truth” increases.

Thanks so much for the stimulating thought!

Greg

February 16, 2010 at 12:02 PM

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