The Direction of Intention

“It’s been on my mind a lot lately,” she said. “The word veritas.”

Veritas.

Veritas is the Latin word for truth though it is more precise than the blanket word, “truth”. It denotes an alignment of words and actions with facts and yet it reaches beyond the hard science of fact into the metaphysics of morality . It is meant to be a core lived-value. One of The Four Agreements of Don Miguel Ruiz is “to be impeccable to your word,” say what you mean and mean what you say. Impeccability to your word is veritas.

Veritas is a Roman goddess “…often depicted as nuda veritas (naked truth), holding a hand mirror to show self-reflection and how things truly are without disguise.” (Wikipedia)

It goes without saying that Veritas is not high on the list of aspirations in these un-United States. We are awash in misinformation, propaganda, deception and lie. In Latin, our current value set is more Falsitas (untruth) than Veritas. In recent history we eschew the hand-mirror and bury ourselves in disguises.

Another yummy Latin word, Simulatio, meaning hypocrisy and deceit, brought a smile to me when I thought it could be the new name of GOP Elephant. It’s either Simulatio or a more considerate moniker: Mentis Morbum (mental illness).

We are in the midst of primary season, choosing the candidates that will run in the November midterm election. Veritas must be on the minds of millions of people. More than once I’ve heard a candidate say something like, “This is not a progressive or conservative issue. It is a human issue.” Hearing this phrase gives me some small measure of hope. It transcends partisan divides. Perhaps we-the-people are finally sick to death of Falsitas and are trying to find our way to common ground. Our shared values. Perhaps the distance between who-we say-we-are and how-we-act has become too vast. Perhaps the weight of the disguise has become to heavy to bear.

Perhaps our only route to survival – and health – as a democracy is by dropping the Falsitas and taking up the hand-mirror of Veritas and having a good long look at our naked truth. Perhaps we will have the courage to open our eyes see our full reflection. Perhaps we will deal honestly with our manufactured divide. Perhaps we will once-and-for-all put to rest the ugly white nationalism, the root of our Falsitas, the seed of our racial inequality, and at long last live without apology the Veritas at the heart of our foundational aspiration: a nation that believes to its core that all people – all people – are created equal.

Equality is not a conservative or progressive issue. It is a human issue.

read Kerri’s blogpost about VERITAS

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