truth and Truth

It is to my surprise that I have observed two kinds of truth. One I would refer to as Truth with a capital 'T', and the other, truth with a lower case 't'.

Now if this rubs you wrong at first, as it did for me the first while that I had heard references to such, just know that it is simply a distinction of semantics -- a distinction that I find helpful in understanding.

Truth
I describe Truth as natural law and principle. I spoke somewhat on natural law in this post.

Gravity is an example of natural law, as is the law of lift which allow birds and airplanes to fly.

Truth can stand on its own. It is absolute and eternal.

truth
To distinguish Truth from truth, the best way I know to do it is to illustrate it with a story.

Consider a young waiter, we'll call him Joel. Joel's friend commented to him one day that she had read an article that said, for whatever reason, people tip less on Wednesdays and asked him if he had observed this in his work.

Joel said he hadn't and brushed it off. However, the thought lingered in his mind to the point that, on Wednesday, his mind was replaying the question and he was beginning to doubt his original response. He got a bit annoyed with himself about it because it seemed so ridiculous, but still, he felt a little frustrated about it.

Later, he had to see if there was any merit to it and, indeed, that Wednesday produced a slightly less tip percentage than usual.

The next Wednesday, Joel hardly wanted to go to work. He couldn't seem to shake this sense that he just knew people were going to tip less. It still seemed ridiculous to him, but he couldn't shake it. When a customer later accidentally spilled a water all over his table, Joel felt like throwing his hands up in frustration and saying "see!"

It wasn't long before Joel's service as a waiter waned on Wednesdays. A couple of months later, Joel told his friend -- "You know what? I've found on Wednesdays, I only get about 65% of the tips I get on other days. How weird is that?"

So, is it true? Do people tip less on Wednesday's? Well for Joel it became true. ...but why?

Is it the result of some natural law or principle that on Wednesdays, people will tip less? No! Of course not!

It was true because Joel believed it to be true. His belief led to a different set of actions which led to a different result!

This is the kind of truth that I call lower-case 't' truth. It is self-fulfilling prophecy, true only because of our own beliefs and choices.

Hopefully this also helps portray an interesting concept: there is no truth without context.